Schettino 'should stay out of jail'

(ANSA) - Florence, March 25 - Defence lawyers for ex Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino reiterated Wednesday their client should not be held in custody pending appeal because he is not likely to flee from justice.
    Last month, a court of first instance sentenced Schettino to 16 years in prison for his role in the 2012 Costa Concordia disaster in which 32 people died.
    But it also rejected a prosecution plea for him to be held behind bars pending the second-tier, appeals phase of his trial.
    The court said there was no evidence to suggest Schettino would seek to flee Italian justice.
    "If (he) had wanted to flee, he would have done so in the last three years," the former cruise captain's lawyers, Saverio Senese and Donato Laino, told journalists as they left a hearing in Florence in which the prosecutor's office petitioned once more for Schettino to be held in jail.