Police put shipwreck captain under house arrest

A lawyer says 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 the defence lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, as saying a judge turned down prosecutors’ request to keep Captain Francesco Schettino in jail.

But, the lawyer says, the judge also rejected a defence bid to set Schettino free.

The death toll in the Costa Concordia tragedy rose to 11 today when five bodies - four men and one woman – were recovered from the submerged portion of the ship, which ran into a reef, then capsized near the Tuscan island of Giglio on Friday night.

Rescuers are continuing to search the partially submerged ship for about two dozen people who are still missing.

Meanwhile, the captain's decision to flee as it was sinking and refusal to return and control the chaotic situation has been exposed in an audio tape.

Captain Schettino was heard making excuses as an Italian coast guard officer repeatedly told him to take charge of the passenger evacuation.

Prosecutors have accused Schettino of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship before all passengers were evacuated.

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

Schettino has insisted he stayed aboard until the ship was evacuated, but the recording of his conversation with Italian Coast Guard Captain Gregorio De Falco indicates he fled before all passengers were off – and then resisted Captain De Falco’s repeated orders to return.

“You go on board and then you will tell me how many people there are. Is that clear?” Captain De Falco shouted in the audio tape.

Schettino resisted, saying the ship was tipping and that it was dark. At the time, he was in a lifeboat and said he was co-ordinating the rescue from there.

Captain De Falco shouted back: “And so what? You want go home, Schettino? It is dark and you want to go home? Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are. Now!”

“You go aboard. It is an order. Don’t make any more excuses. You have declared the abandoning of the ship, now I am in charge,” Captain De Falco shouted.

Schettino was finally heard agreeing to reboard. It is unclear whether he did.

Before the latest bodies were found, 29 people had been unaccounted for.