TERMINI IMERESE, Italy: Sicilian prosecutors mentioned on Saturday (Aug 24) they have been investigating potential crimes of negligent shipwreck and manslaughter after a superyacht sank killing seven folks, together with UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch.
Prosecutors careworn the investigation was at an early stage following the sinking of the British-flagged crusing boat Bayesian off the north of the Italian island in a storm early Monday.
“The Public Prosecutor’s Workplace of Termini Imerese has registered a file with the state towards unknown individuals, hypothesising the crimes of negligent shipwreck and a number of negligent manslaughter,” state prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio informed reporters.
However he cautioned that with the final physique – of Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah – having solely been recovered on Friday, the probe was at an early stage.
“We’re solely within the preliminary part of the investigations … At this stage, exactly as a result of the investigation might develop in any manner, we’re completely not ruling something out,” he mentioned.
Lynch, 59, had invited family and friends onto the boat to have fun his latest acquittal in an enormous US fraud case.
However the 56m yacht was struck by a waterspout – like a mini-tornado – earlier than daybreak on Monday because it was anchored off Porticello, close to Palermo.
Fifteen folks have been rescued and the physique of 1 man, confirmed Saturday because the yacht’s cook dinner, was discovered shortly afterwards.
A serious search operation together with specialist divers subsequently recognized the our bodies of 4 of Lynch’s associates on Wednesday, then Lynch himself on Thursday.
The businessman had been acquitted on all fees in a San Francisco courtroom in June after he was accused of a US$11 billion fraud linked to the sale of his software program agency Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.
