The captain of the luxurious yacht owned by the household of British tech magnate Mike Lynch that sank off Sicily final week declined to answer prosecutors throughout questioning on Tuesday, one in all his attorneys mentioned.
James Cutfield, a 51-year-old New Zealand nationwide, was put below investigation on Monday by Italian prosecutors.
“The captain exercised his proper to stay silent for 2 elementary causes,” lawyer Giovanni Rizzuti advised reporters.
“First, he’s very worn out. Second, we had been appointed solely on Monday and for a radical and proper defence case we have to purchase a set of knowledge that for the time being we don’t have.”
Lynch and 6 different individuals had been killed when the British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long (184-foot) yacht, capsized and sank on August 19 inside minutes of being hit by a pre-dawn storm whereas anchored off northern Sicily.
Being positioned below investigation in Italy doesn’t suggest guilt and doesn’t imply formal expenses will essentially observe. It’s nonetheless unclear whether or not different crew members or different individuals can even be positioned below investigation.
Prosecutors mentioned their investigation would take time and would require the wreck to be salvaged from the ocean. The Bayesian is at the moment mendacity on its proper facet, at a depth of round 50 metres.
The coastguard is conducting actions to observe the environmental circumstances within the space the place the yacht sank, it mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday.
“In the mean time we don’t register any leaks from tanks and there aren’t any traces of oil air pollution,” it mentioned.
