Sentence
'Prestige' captain faces 12-year jail sentence
Prosecutors are asking for a 12-year jail sentence for the captain of the Prestige tanker, which dumped some 77,000 tons of oil on the Galician coast in 2002, causing Spain's worst-ever environmental disaster.
The captain, Apostolos Mangouras, along with insurer The London P&I, should have to pay 2.33 billion euro in damages, said the prosecutor's indictment, which was presented to Galicia's regional High Court in A Coruña onWednesday. Mangouras, 75, also faces a 43,200 euro fine.
The lengthy trial is expected to be held in the coming months. After the Industry Ministry decided to send the stricken Prestige tanker out to sea, the vessel subsequently broke up, spilling the oil and causing a major crisis during Prime Minister José María Aznar's Popular Party government.
(Published by El País – June 10, 2010)