WWF CALLS FOR EXPERT ANALYSIS OF 'TOXIC SHIP' FOOTAGE
WWF CALLS FOR EXPERT ANALYSIS OF 'TOXIC SHIP' FOOTAGE
(ANSA) - Rome, November 2 - The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on Monday urged the government to take another look at a shipwreck originally thought to contain toxic waste but now claimed to be a World War I passenger vessel.
An open letter by WWF Italia President Stefano Leoni highlighted discrepancies in an investigation into the wreck, which has been at the centre of a media storm for weeks after a mafia turncoat alleged it had been sunk deliberately to conceal radioactive waste.
Leoni's letter implied that Environment Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo's announcement last week that the wreck was actually a passenger vessel was based on footage of the wrong ship.
Investigators discovered the boat 12 miles off the Cosenza coastline in early September, reportedly deducing the location from an account by turncoat Francesco Fonti, who claimed to have helped sink the vessel 17 years ago.
The former member of the 'Ndrangheta mafia said the vessel, a Russian ship named the Cunsky, had been sunk in order to conceal radioactive waste.
A robot sent down by regional authorities to investigate the vessel shortly after it was discovered could not make out the name of the boat but reportedly sent back images of containers still on board.
However, images captured by an environment ministry probe in late October concluded there were no containers on board.
Leoni suggested this was because the cameras had been sent down at locations 3.5 miles apart, as revealed by the different coordinates provided by investigators.
He said an expert analysis of the footage would be the only way to ''clear up every doubt and fully confirm the truth about the identity and content of the ship ''.
Prestigiacomo and Grasso announced the wreck was a passenger vessel called the Catania on Thursday.
They also confirmed that extensive testing of waters and sediment around the vessel had revealed no signs of radioactive pollution.
The allegations by Fonti, who was questioned by prosecutors last week, first appeared in a 2005 witness statement as part of a separate investigation.
The turncoat also claimed he had been personally involved in the sinking of two other ships and said he knew of at least 30 more vessels sunk by the mafia in Italian waters in order to dispose of toxic waste.
The Catania passenger ship, which belonged to a Genoese shipping company, was built in Palermo in 1906.
It was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of Cosenza on March 16, 1917, on a journey from Bombay (now Mumbai) back to Naples.
