GROSSETO, Italy (AP) — The prosecutor leading the Italian investigation into the Costa Concordia shipwreck says it could take experts three months to analyze the cruise ship's voice recorder.
Francesco Verusio spoke to state radio as hundreds of lawyers, consultants, former passengers and crew arrived in Grosseto, Tuscany, Saturday for the initial evidence hearing. There are so many participants at the closed-door hearing a local theater is being used.
Verusio said he expects the daylong hearing to be taken up by "procedural battles."
Lawyers for the captain, Francesco Schettino, who is accused of manslaughter and abandoning ship, slipped into the theater through a backdoor.
Schettino denies wrongdoing. Thirty-two people either died or are missing and presumed dead in the Jan. 13 shipwreck.
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