Cruise liner captain faces house arrest over shipwreck

THE captain who allegedly abandoned the crippled Costa Concordia cruise liner will be released from jail and placed under house arrest.

The Italian news agency Ansa quoted captain Francesco Schettino’s defence lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, as saying a judge turned down prosecutors’ request to keep him in jail. But, the lawyer said, the judge also rejected a defence bid to set Schettino free.

The Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 people when it hit a reef off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Friday night when Schettino made an unauthorised deviation from the cruise ship’s programmed course.