The brief presented on March 14 to prosecutors in Crotone, the city in Italy's Calabria region near the site of the shipwreck, said that "many objective facts" regarding the incident deserve to be "examined in detail in criminal proceedings against known or unknown people that have already being investigated or that we are asking to investigate."

The team of lawyers are providing pro bono legal repressdentation to the families of the 86 ascertained victims of the migrant boat shipwreck that took place at dawn on February 26 off Steccato di Cutro, in Calabria.

The boat thought to be carrying some 180 people mainly from Afghanistan, Syria and Iran ran aground and broke up in shallow water near the coast after four days' sailing from Turkey.

Read also: Italy: 5,000 people protest in Cutro with a cross made from wreckage

The main points of the document drafted by the lawyers

The legal team representing victims' families includes lawyers Luigi Li Gotti, Mitja Gialuz, Vincenzo Cardone and Francesco Verri.

In particular, the attorneys are asking investigators to determine whether the "mayday received by port authorities in Roccella Ionica at 8:51 pm on February 24 is potentially attributable to the shipwrecked boat; whether the distress message sent to all ships in transit in the Ionian sea, with the opening of 'SAR case 384', can be traced back to the shipwrecked boat; whether the boat from which the 'mayday' was sent can be tracked down."

The brief also asked prosecutors to find out the "coordinates of the position of the boat from which the 'mayday' was sent; who received and evaluated (EU border agency) Frontex's report at 11:03 pm on February 25, which was received by the National coordination centre of the interior ministry, with the indication of only one person on deck, open portholes, sea force 4, the presence of people below deck, with the thermal response coming from portholes, and the absence of life vests on board."

Moreover, the team of lawyers asked State attorneys to evaluate "if the Frontex report was sent out by the National coordination centre, to whom and with what content" and whether there were "other reports or orders regarding the communication issued by Frontex at 11:03 pm on February 25."

Finally, the brief questioned whether an operational agreement of the interior ministry dating back to September 14, 2005 which defined procedures at sea to fight illegal migration or any other directive interpreting maritime law according to national and international law "affected decisions at any level" regarding the shipwrecked boat.

'Different behaviour of finance police, coast guards in similar cases'

In their brief, the lawyers moreover questioned whether "finance police, after realizing that weather and sea conditions made navigation impossible for the V.5006 cutter of the operational naval unit of Crotone and the 'Barbarisi' patrol vessel of the finance police aeronaval group in Taranto, reported the circumstance to port authorities in Crotone and, if they did, how the latter responded."

The two finance police vessels went out to assess the situation after Frontex's report but they were forced to head back due to heavy seas. Lawyers also asked "why on September 9, 2020 -- and in many other cases -- finance police and coast guards rescued a boat in distress with 97 people on board with sea force 5 in the same area, contrary to what occurred in the night of February 26."