The hearings will help decide whether Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino will face trial

Schettino is attending the hearings

More than 1,000 survivors, victims' relatives and their lawyers also are in attendance

10:29AM EDT October 15. 2012 - GROSSETO, Italy (AP) —

The former captain of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia cruise liner came to an Italian court on Monday to hear the evidence against him, while passengers who survived the Jan. 13 collision in which 32 died showed up to look him in the eye.

Wearing dark glasses, Francesco Schettino used a back entrance to slip into a theater in the Tuscan city of Grosseto that is serving as a courtroom. He made no comment to reporters outside.

The Concordia ran aground and capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio after Schettino took it off course and brought it close to the island as part of a stunt.

Hearings this week will help decide whether a judge will order trial for Schettino, who is charged with manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning ship while passengers and crew were still aboard. He denies the charges. Any trial is unlikely to begin before next year.