Call To Jail 'Captain' Over Migrant Boat Sinking

Italian prosecutors are demanding the man they say captained a migrant boat that sank, killing up to 800 people, be sentenced to 18 years in prison.

A judge is being asked to convict 27-year-old Tunisian Mohammed Ali Malek on charges of manslaughter and international people smuggling.

He denies he was the captain, claiming he was just another passenger who had paid to be on board.

Only 28 people survived the disaster in April last year, and hundreds of bodies are still trapped in the hull of the sunken fishing boat.

The Italian navy is trying to raise the vessel, and has so far recovered 118 bodies from the sea floor.

Outrage over the incident prompted European Union leaders to bolster its own search-and-rescue mission in the Mediterranean just days after the boat went down.

In the past two years, more than 320,000 boat migrants have arrived on Italian shores.

And an estimated 7,000 died in the Mediterranean as they tried to reach Europe, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Prosecutors are also asking for a six year jail term for 25-year-old Syrian Mahmud Bikhit, who survivors said was Ali Malek's cabin boy.

Bikhit also denies any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors say Ali Malek mishandled the grossly overloaded fishing boat, which left from Darabli in Libya, carrying men, women and children from Algeria, Somalia, Egypt, Senegal, Zambia, Mali, Bangladesh and Ghana.

They say he caused the boat to collide with a Portuguese merchant ship that was coming to its aid.

As the passengers rushed away from the side of the boat which had struck the merchant ship, the vessel capsized and sank within minutes.

The defence will present their arguments in hearings scheduled for 19 July and 4 October.