An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced the captain of the Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, to 16 years and one month in prison for causing the 2012 cruise ship disaster that claimed 32 lives.

Schettino, 54, was sentenced at the end of a 19-month trial, three years after the giant liner struck rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

The conviction of the man dubbed "Captain Coward" by the media and "an idiot" by prosecutors, is subject to appeal, and Schettino will remain free for the time being after the three judges in the case rejected a request for him to be sent to jail immediately on the grounds that he could skip the country.

Schettino's total prison term included 10 years for the deaths of 32 passengers and crew members, five years for causing the shipwreck when he steered too close to Giglio, one year for abandoning the luxury vessel while hundreds of people were still aboard, and one month for giving false information to maritime authorities about the gravity of the Concordia's collision, which prosecutors said delayed the arrival of help.

The punishment was 10 years short of what prosecutors had sought, and left some survivors wondering if justice was done.

"Thirty-two dead. That's about six months for every person who died," said Anne Decre, a French woman who managed to get aboard a lifeboat before the Concordia's listing made it impossible to lower other boats.

She was one of only a handful of survivors who came to court to hear the verdict. She is pressing for better safety standards for cruise ships. Like other survivors, she recalled that many passengers had not been drilled in emergency procedures after starting the Mediterranean cruise.

Keven Rebello's brother, Russel Rebello, was a ship's waiter who stayed aboard to lower the last of the lifeboats. His body was found only after the Costa Concordia was towed away from Giglio after being set upright in a spectacular engineering feat.

AP - AFP