5 days after the dramatic shipwreck in front of the beach of Steccato di Cutro, in Crotonese, Calabria, the controversy over the hole in rescue does not stop, while the non-definitive death toll continues to grow. The 68th body, that of a 30-year-old boy, was recovered at sea, but the search continues. At work in these hours the divers of the Guardia di Finanza who beat the bottom on the west side of the beach.

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Shipwreck, drone search activities, divers at work

The front of the investigations

After the visit of the President of the Republic Mattarella, to the coffins lined up in the sports hall of Crotone first and to the survivors admitted to the hospital then, which for a day has mitigated the controversy, today we return to talk about the responsibilities in the malfunctioning of the rescue machine.

The Public Prosecutor's Office of Crotone has opened a file, for now without suspects, to answer the questions that remained answered: "Why was the SOS signal not launched? Could migrants have been saved? What went wrong with the communication between Frontex, the Guardia di Finanza and the Port Authority"?

At the beginning of next week, probably already on Monday, the delegation to the Carabinieri will be formalized by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Crotone for the acquisition of all the documents relating to the management of the Guardia di Finanza and the Coast Guard of the boat loaded with migrants.

These days, in fact, the prosecutor of Crotone Giuseppe Capoccia is out of office. The magistrate should return to the office on Monday and it should be then that, together with the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Pasquale Festa, the Carabinieri will be formally entrusted with the delegation to the acquisition of the documents as part of the new line of investigations - at the moment against unknown persons and without hypothesizing a crime - opened to clarify what were the decisions taken after the Frontex report of 23.03 on Saturday 25, of a boat 40 miles from the Calabrian coast.

The Public Prosecutor's Office thus intends to ascertain which decisions have been taken and whether there have been criminal flaws in the rescue chain.

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Mattarella in Crotone to pay tribute to the victims of the shipwreck

Rixi: "No one touches the Coast Guard, no one said not to rescue people at sea"

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Edoardo Rixi, spoke about the subsequent political controversy, responding to reporters, on the sidelines of a conference in Palermo.

"I am for clarity, but I do not like that someone questions the Italian rescue forces, which do not depend on politics because they are rescuers at sea regardless. If the problem is who is the minister or the deputy minister we can talk about it, but no one touches the Coast Guard because we would be questioning a body that is admired worldwide and I would like to be admired also by this country", Rixi stressed.

"Even if a politician had said to do things they should not do - added the deputy minister - they would have continued to do their duty, as they have always done under any government".

"Our Coast Guard - observes Rixi - is the one that in the world, in the last twenty years, has saved more people. With regard to this episode we have obviously asked for clarity and we are reviewing all the reports. But it is one thing to speak at the political level, quite another to accuse bodies of the state of not doing their duty.

"The rules of engagement are determined by Europe and are the same for all bailouts. You always have to shed light and investigate everything internally. But no one said not to rescue people at sea. I saved people in the mountains, while there are those who speak in the newspapers and who in their lives have never gone to save anyone".
So the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Edoardo Rixi responding to reporters on the massacre of migrants in Cutro, on the sidelines of a conference in Palermo.

Referring then to the words of Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi immediately after the shipwreck of migrants in Cutro that raised controversy, Rixi added that Minister Piantedosi enjoys "the utmost confidence".

"He is a prefect and speaks as a prefect, if he were a politician he would speak as a politician," he said. Since the beginning of the year we have saved more people than all the other Mediterranean nations combined. Even on this situation, Greece did not intervene for 4 days. The reports have been made, as they have been made to Italy and Italy has tried to intervene", he added.