The captain of the fishing boat that sank in the Mediterranean on Sunday with hundreds of migrants will be charged along with his main assistant, according to Italian prosecutors on Tuesday.  

The judge will finalize on Friday if Mohammed Ali Malek, the 27-year-old Tunisian captain, and his main assistant Mahmud Bikhit, 26-year-old from Syria, will be charged with people smuggling, multiple homicide, and causing a shipwreck. The two are now in the custody of local police.

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Malek is responsible for the death of possibly more than 800 migrants on Sunday, mostly Africans and Bangladeshi, looking to cross the Mediterranean over to Europe to escape poverty. According to survivors, they paid between $420 to $840 (500 to 1000 Libyan dinars) for the ride. The overloaded vessel was reported to be carrying 850 passengers, but the reason why it capsized is not yet verified.

According to United Nations spokeswoman Carlotta Sami, there are three possibilities as the reason of the incident. One is its collision with King Jacob, a Portuguese vessel sent to answer a distress call from Malek. King Jacob may have bumped with the fishing boat or produced a big wave by sailing near it, making Malek's boat tip roughly 110 kilometers north of Libya.

However, OSM Maritime Group, owner of King Jacob, denied this. A communications executive from the company told CNN that it was going very slowly, hardly making any waves before deploying rescue boats, a gangway, nets, and life rings to help. The crew members, who were all Filipinos, saved 22 survivors.

The other theory, which is highly plausible, is simply that the boat is overloaded.

According to Giovanni Salvi, prosecutor in Catania, an estimated 200 women and around 50 children had been trapped in the lower decks of the three-deck vessel.

From multiple accounts of survivors, Sami is close to mapping out the events leading to the horrific incident. After 14 hours since it set sail at around 8 am, the boat was already in grave trouble by 10 pm. Most survivors are still in shock, unable to provide very clear and accurate stories.

TagsMediterranean capsized boat, Mohammed Ali Malek, Mahmud Bikhi, Mediterranean capsize death toll, Libya migrants, human trafficking in North Afica, human smuggling in North Africa, Italian prosectors arrest captain