Italy: the Eternit case – a new appeal trial for Schmidheiny
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A fresh court appeal hearing is set to take place in Italy for the Swiss businessman Stephan Schmidheiny, who is accused of multiple counts of aggravated manslaughter related to asbestos.
This was decided by the judges of the Fourth Section of the Supreme Court of Cassation, who ordered a retrial at second instance in relation to some 60 victims, whilst the statute of limitations was declared to apply in respect of a further 25 victims of asbestos-related diseases.
The request by the Attorney General’s Office, which had sought confirmation of the nine-year-and-six-month prison sentence for the defendant, was rejected.
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The Supreme Court’s decision on the Eternit case and the charges against Schmidheiny came after more than six hours of deliberation. The president of the Fourth Section read out the judgement in a courtroom packed with relatives of the victims, who remained in absolute silence.
The verdict will refer the case of the so-called ‘killer factory’ in Casale Monferrato (province of Alessandria, Piedmont) back to another section of the Turin (Piedmont) Court of Appeal for a fresh assessment. The proceedings will concern around 60 people who died as a result of asbestos pollution and mesothelioma.
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Statute of limitations
For a further 25, the statute of limitations has been definitively applied. This, together with the failure to establish criminal liability on the part of Schmidheiny, represents a substantial victory for the defence lawyers, who, just over a year ago, had succeeded in having the proceedings set aside because the second-instance judgement had not been translated into German.
Schmidheiny had managed the Eternit factory in Casale from 1976 to 1986. Relatives and family members of the victims gathered this morning outside the Supreme Court building, holding a banner reading ‘Justice – Research – Remediation’. They are now struggling to contain their dismay at the Court’s decision.
“We need to understand, we need to understand,” they said, according to the Italian news agency askanews.
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Italian court quashes Swiss industrialist asbestos jail term
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Translated from Italian, reviewed by an English Department journalist.
