A Tunisian man has been found guilty by a court in Sicily of causing the sinking of a boat in which 700 migrants died in April 2015.
According to BBC, Mohammed Ali Malek, who had denied being the boat’s captain, was given 18 years in jail. He was also convicted of manslaughter and human trafficking. A Syrian was handed a five-year sentence.
The heavily overcrowded boat sank off Libya after colliding with a merchant vessel that had come to its rescue.
Only 28 people survived the disaster.
Many of those who died had been crammed into the hold of the fishing boat and locked inside.
Most of the victims on the 27m-long (90ft) boat were from countries including Mali, Gambia, Senegal and Ethiopia. Among the survivors were two young Bangladeshis who took part in the case as civil plaintiffs.
Malek had denied being captain of the boat when it rammed the side of King Jacob merchant vessel as it came to the trawler’s aid in international waters. Prosecutors at the court in Catania said his control of the boat had been “naive, careless and negligent”.
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