London: The disgraced captain of Costa Concordia, whose luxury-liner shipwreck killed 32 passengers in January this year, is said to be negotiating the price for his interviews with the media.
Captain Francesco Schettino, who is suspected of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship ahead of his passengers, is negotiating two EUR 50,000 interviews, one with a TV channel and another with a news magazine.
Schettino's lawyer, Paul Bastianini, confirmed to La Stampa, that lucrative deals were currently being brokered on behalf of his client, The Independent reports.
“There are no signed agreements yet. We want to maximise the interests of Captain Schettino so that the two exclusives go out together in order that one doesn't devalue the other,” the paper quoted Bastianini, as saying.
The news follows unconfirmed rumours that a US publisher was looking into a book deal with Schettino.
Meanwhile, Carlo Rienzi, the president of the Codacons consumer group, which is leading a class action against Costa Cruises, the owners of the Concordia, said that they would try taking ‘every euro Schettino earns and give it to families of those who've lost loved ones’.
Cruise ship Costa Concordia capsized after it ran aground off the Italian coast in January 13, 2012.
Schettino recently made a bizarre statement that the disaster could have been much worse had a ''divine hand'' not guided him.
ANI
First Published: Saturday, July 07, 2012, 15:19