Tunisia: Outcry over Italian Court’s Verdict on Tunisian Pilots · Global Voices
Lina Ben Mhenni

Two Tunisian pilots of Tuninter Flight 1153, which crash landed in the sea off Sicily in 2005 killing 16 people, were sentenced to 10 years in prison by an Italian court. The decision is being contested by Tunisian bloggers, who say the pilots’ heroic efforts in saving the 23 other passengers on board should have been celebrated.
Some thoughts from Tunisia [Ar] smells discrimination in the verdict and writes:
لكن اسمائهم ليست آلان ولا دافيد ولا جون بول بل شفيق الغربي و علي الكبّير لذا فعليهم دفع الثّمن في نظر القضاء الايطالي !! والتّهمة في نظر هذا القضاء المتعسّف هي انّهم لجؤا بسبب خوفهم الشديد بالانشغال بالدعاء والاستغاثة بالله بالدعاء في وقت كان يتعين عليهم فيه القيام بإجرآت الطوارئ لتجنب تحطم طائرتهم حسب ما جاء في تسجيلات غرفة القيادة. وهو عين الافتراء حسب ما تبيّنه تّسجيلات الصندوق الاسود التّي تبيّن ان الطياريين بذلوا ما في وسعهم لانقاذ ما يمكن انقاذه (طلب هليكوبترين، اجراء الهبوط الاضطراري قرب باخرتين لاعطاء فرص نجاة اكبر…) !!
But their names are not  Alain,  David, nor John Paul. They are named Shafik Al Gharbi and Ali Kbeyer. Therefore, for the Italian justice, they should pay the price!! They have been charged because they opted to pray for God to help them at a time when they had to perform  emergency  procedures to avoid their plane crash, according to recordings from the cockpit. But these are lies  as shown by the black box recordings. Indeed it  shows that the two pilots did their best to save what can be saved (they requested two helicopters and conducted an emergency landing near two vessels to give their passengers a greater chance of survival …) .
Articuler [Fr], on his part, echoes a similar sentiment:
Le tribunal italien de Palerme a prononcé lundi 23 mars 2009 son verdict dans l’affaire du crash de l’ATR de la compagnie aérienne tunisienne Tuninter.
Le verdict de la justice italienne a été très sévère et représente une véritable première ! Jamais, par le passé, les responsables administratifs d’une compagnie aérienne n’ont été condamnés à des peines de prison ferme. En prononçant des condamnations allant jusqu’à dix ans de prison, la justice italienne inflige aux responsables tunisiens des peines comme s’ils étaient de véritables chauffards éméchés sur la route. Et encore, on s’interroge si les ivrognes italiens du volant écopent de peines aussi lourdes !