FORROME: An Italian court on Saturday accepted plea bargains for five suspects in the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster under which they will serve prison sentences ranging from 18 months to two years and 10 months, media reported.
The five include Roberto Ferrarini, the director of ship owner Costa Crociere’s crisis unit, Jacob Rusli Bin, the luxury liner’s Indonesian helmsman, as well as a deputy of Captain Francesco Schettino and two other crew members.
Schettino, who is accused of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship, is currently the only one standing trial for the deadly accident off Giglio island in Tuscany which claimed 32 lives in January 2012.
On Wednesday, when Schettino’s trial opened, his lawyers requested a sentencing deal of three years and five months in prison for admitting responsibility but were refused. They renewed the request on Saturday.
Civil plaintiffs who want to see justice served for their lost loved ones have expressed fury over the clemency offered Schettino’s co-defendants.
Under the plea agreements accepted by the court in Grosseto in the central Tuscany region, Ferrarini received the longest sentence of two years and 10 months in prison.
Manrico Giampedroni, the cabin service director, faces two years and six months in prison, while captain’s deputy Ciro Ambrosio got one year and 11 months.
Rusli Bin, the liner’s Indonesian helmsman who misunderstood the captain’s orders at the moment of the crash, received a year and eight months in jail and officer Silvia Coronica got one year and six months, the shortest sentence.
Audio from the ship’s black box revealed the chaos on the bridge on the night of the shipwreck, when Rusli Bin was steering the huge liner and Schettino had ordered a risky “salute” maneuver near the island.
In the recordings, when the crew realizes the vessel is bearing down on rocks jutting out of the sea near Giglio, Schettino can be heard yelling “hard to port” while Ambrosio appears to yell “hard to starboard.”
The helmsman, who did not speak English or Italian fluently, is heard asking “hard to starboard?“
By the time Schettino had repeated his order it was too late to right the Concordia’s course.
The luxurious liner crashed into the Giglio rocks on the night of Jan. 13, 2012, with 4,229 people from 70 countries on board, keeling over and sparking a panicked and delayed evacuation which saw some people forced to throw themselves into the freezing sea.
On Thursday, the court admitted a new video as evidence in the trial. Prosecutors said the footage from surveillance cameras aboard the ship would show what happened during the various stages of the disaster — from the crash to the evacuation order and the ship’s capsizing.
Italian court jails five over cruise ship disaster
Italian court jails five over cruise ship disaster
Prabowo, Trump expected to sign Indonesia-US tariff deal in January 2026
- Deal will mean US tariffs on Indonesian products are cut from a threatened 32 percent to 19 percent
- Jakarta committed to scrap tariffs on more than 99 percent of US goods
JAKARTA: Indonesia expects to sign a tariff deal with the US in early 2026 after reaching an agreement on “all substantive issues,” Jakarta's chief negotiator said on Tuesday.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto met with US trade representative Jamieson Greer in Washington this week to finalize an Indonesia-US trade deal, following a series of discussions that took place after the two countries agreed on a framework for negotiations in July.
“All substantive issues laid out in the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade have been agreed upon by the two sides, including both the main and technical issues,” Hartarto said in an online briefing.
Officials from both countries are now working to set up a meeting between Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and US President Donald Trump.
It will take place after Indonesian and US technical teams meet in the second week of January for a legal scrubbing, or a final clean-up of an agreement text.
“We are expecting that the upcoming technical process will wrap up in time as scheduled, so that at the end of January 2026 President Prabowo and President Trump can sign the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade,” Hartarto said.
Indonesian trade negotiators have been in “intensive” talks with their Washington counterparts since Trump threatened to levy a 32 percent duty on Indonesian exports.
Under the July framework, US tariffs on Indonesian imports were lowered to 19 percent, with Jakarta committing to measures to balance trade with Washington, including removing tariffs on more than 99 percent of American imports and scrapping all non-tariff barriers facing American companies.
Jakarta also pledged to import $15 billion worth of energy products and $4.5 billion worth of agricultural products such as soybeans, wheat and cotton, from the US.
“Indonesia will also get tariff exemptions on top Indonesian goods, such as palm oil, coffee, cocoa,” Hartarto said.
“This is certainly good news, especially for Indonesian industries directly impacted by the tariff policy, especially labor-intensive sectors that employ around 5 million workers.”
In the past decade, Indonesia has consistently posted trade surpluses with the US, its second-largest export market after China.
From January to October, data from the Indonesian trade ministry showed two-way trade valued at nearly $36.2 billion, with Jakarta posting a $14.9 billion surplus.
