The man who authorities say captained a boat carrying migrants from Libya that capsized in the Mediterranean, killing more than 700, has appeared in an Italian court. He faces possible charges of homicide and human trafficking.
An attorney for Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, from Tunisia, says that his client was a passenger – not skipper – of the overloaded fishing boat that reportedly collided with a merchant ship and then capsized. Hundreds of migrants were allegedly locked below deck and unable to escape when the boat sank.
"He says he's a migrant like all the others and he paid his fare to go on the boat," his lawyer, Massimo Ferrante, said outside the courtroom in Catania, Sicily.
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.