Italian Boat Tragedy: Captain Accepts Prison Plea

Claudio Carminati, captain and owner of the boat that sank in Lake Maggiore, Italy, resulting in four deaths including secret agents, accepted a four-year prison sentence. Carminati was charged with manslaughter and shipwreck. The incident involved structural instability, overcrowding, and weather underestimation.

The captain and owner of a boat that sank in a lake in northern Italy last year killing four people, including two Italian secret agents and a retired Mossad officer, has settled on a four-year prison sentence, his lawyer and a judicial source said on Thursday. Claudio Carminati, 60, took a plea bargain on charges of manslaughter and shipwreck.

"Sadly, he is still very distraught and is not making any comments," lawyer Marco Vittorio told Reuters. It is unclear whether he will be sent to prison because in Italy for sentences of up to four years it is possible to apply for probation to social services

The shipwreck on Italy's Lake Maggiore killed Anya Bozhkova, 50, Carminati's Russian wife, as well as Claudio Alonzi, 62, and Tiziana Barnobi, 53, two Italian intelligence service officials. The fourth victim was Erez Shimoni, 54, a retired Israeli Mossad agent.

The 16-m (52.5-feet) boat was carrying 25 people when it was hit by a sudden, violent storm on the evening of May 29, 2023, sinking the vessel near the town of Lisanza, at the southern end of the lake. Most of the passengers and crew managed to escape and either swam ashore or else were pulled to safety by other boats.

The investigation led by local prosecutor Massimo De Fillippo found that the causes of the accident were the installation of some superstructures on the boat that undermined its stability, passengers exceeding the permitted number by 7-10 people, an insufficient number of life jackets, and underestimation of the weather conditions. The incident was widely reported because several of the passengers on the boat turned out to be members of the Italian and Israeli secret services, leading to speculation about the reason for the meeting and the shipwreck itself.

Italy's ANSA news agency reported at the time that 13 Israelis and eight Italians had been aboard the boat to celebrate a birthday. However, Il Messaggero newspaper had said that the two groups were on a work trip, giving no further information. Neither Italy nor Israel have ever commented on the gathering.

No one has suggested foul play in the accident. Witnesses had said the storm hit suddenly, packing powerful winds and dumping a huge quantity of rain on the lake.

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