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| Europe |
| Italy: Thirteen illegal immigrants thrown to sea for bringing 'bad luck' |
| 2008-10-14 |
| (AKI) - Thirteen illegal immigrants aboard a people-smuggler's boat were thrown overboard off Sicily's coast for 'bringing bad luck'. Somebody certainly had bad luck... Five Nigerians have been detained over the incident and accused of multiple aggravated homicide. Looks like they tossed the wrong ones, huh? Twelve of the immigrants were Nigerian and one was of Ghanaian nationality. They were all males and are presumed dead. Media reports quoted the people-smugglers as claiming the men were 'interfering' with the navigation of the boat as it sailed towards Italy. "How do you mean 'interfering?'" "We were using a compass. They'd been magnetized." "It is a horrendous incident. The 13 people were thrown to the water while they were still alive only because of superstition," said Syracuse's public prosecutor Ugo Rossi. And now they're 'believed dead'.... The incident took place on 11 September near Portopalo di Capo Passero on the Sicilian coast, where the boat landed with 59 people on board, among them women and children. Media reports say the illegal immigrants aboard the boat told the Italian authorities the people smugglers had thrown the 13 passengers overboard while still alive. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Well, they made it so...I dunno. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-10-14 12:37 |
| #3 Sure brought bad luck to the 13 immigrants. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-10-14 07:35 |
| #2 Greek captain I read about pitched two Tanzanian stowaways overboard with only a pallet somewhere off Somalia. Where they went overboard is known to be shark-infested. One of his crew turned him in and he was charged with manslaughter in Greece. When asked about how he could possibly have done such a thing, he replied that "everyone knows that sharks don't eat black people." I heard later he was acquitted. |
| Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-10-14 00:22 |
| #1 The same thing happened to me once. |
| Posted by: Jonah 2008-10-14 00:12 |