Twenty years of imprisonment: this is the sentence request made by the Crotone Prosecutor's Office against Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turkish citizen, believed to be one of the smugglers of the "Summer love", the gulet loaded with migrants that sank on 26 February 2023 in Steccato di Cutro with the death of 94 people.
Prosecutor Pasquale Festa also requested a sentence of 2.1 million euros.
Ufuk, tried with a summary trial, is accused of aiding and abetting illegal immigration, negligent shipwreck, death as a consequence of another crime.
Ufuk is the only one of the four alleged smugglers who chose the shortened procedure.
For the others the ordinary trial is underway.
The man was arrested on March 8 after being identified in Austria, where he had taken refuge after managing to escape.
The lawyers for the defense and the civil parties are now speaking before the Crotone preliminary hearing judge Elisa Marchetto, including the Presidency of the Council of Ministers who has requested one million in compensation for damage to its reputation.
The ruling is scheduled for late afternoon.
The accused: 'I was the mechanic, I traded the trip'
"I was only the mechanic of the boat and I exchanged the payment of the trip for the job of engineer to repair the engine. I never drove the boat. I am so sorry for the pain caused to the families of the dead people".
This is what Gun Ufuk said, the 29-year-old Turkish citizen accused of the Cutro shipwreck, for whom this morning the public prosecutor Pasquale Festa - at the conclusion of the abbreviated trial - asked for a sentence of 20 years in prison and 2, 1 million fine, holding him responsible for the crimes of aiding and abetting illegal immigration, negligent shipwreck and death following aiding and abetting illegal immigration.
Ufuk, defended by the lawyer Salvatore Falcone, subjected himself to questioning during a long hearing in which, although admitting to being part of the crew, he provided his version of events: "I had to escape from Turkey for political reasons. I was arrested because I was considered to be part of the movement that led the attempted coup in 2016. In 2019 I was in prison for eight months because I criticized Erdogan and his policies. When I got out for two years I had to report myself to the police and I "now there is a ban on leaving Turkey. For those who are considered coup plotters it is not easy to live in Turkey. We are discriminated against by the authorities and we cannot find work. For this reason I decided to leave, but I did not have the necessary money and so I agreed to to be the mechanic of the boat that was supposed to arrive on the Italian coast and return. The organizers of the trip introduced me to Bayram, my friend, who was the captain of the boat and who died in the shipwreck".
"The boat - said Ufuk - was driven by my friend Gulem Byram (who died in the shipwreck, ed.) who had already made other trips. I was close to him but I never drove. That night I heard that the boat had touched something and I saw Byram trying to turn: he gave gas but the engine stopped. I was scared and I dived because the boat was tilting. I swam for half an hour and I arrived on the beach, Byram didn't abandon the boat. There was chaos, people shouting. Before the accident the other people on board called the emergency numbers several times."
The accused then said that he escaped to Austria "together with Mohamed, the captain of the first boat which then broke down (he is Mohamed Abdessalem, 26 years old, a Syrian arrested on 5 December in the Lecce prison where he is being held for another reason, ed.). We walked for 5 hours and then I remember there was a port we took a taxi to Bari. Mohammed paid. From Bari we went to Rome and then towards Germany, but in Salzburg he stopped me police".
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