16 years’ jail for bosses of asbestos factory that caused 2,000 deaths

The case in Turin could set a precedent for proceedings worldwide about safety at the workplace.

Former Swiss owner Stephan Schmidheiny, 64, and Belgian shareholder and former executive Jean Louis Marie Ghislain De Cartier De Marchienne, 90, were accused of intentionally omitting to put in place measures to prevent asbestos damage at Swiss construction firm Eternit’s Italian plants.

The defendants, who were tried in absentia, were charged for their role as executives at the fibre cement maker’s Italian affiliate Eternit SpA. They deny wrongdoing.

During the trial, which has dragged on since December 2009, some 2,100 deaths were blamed on the asbestos fibres, which can cause grave lung problems, including cancer. Prosecutors said the contamination stretched over decades.

“This is the biggest trial in the world and in history as far as safety at work is concerned,” said prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello as he entered the courthouse in Turin.

Mr Guariniello had called for a 20-year jail sentence for both defendants. In a statement, Schmidheiny called the ruling “incomprehensible” and said he would appeal.

Hundreds of people, many of them who had lost parents or spouses to asbestos-linked diseases, crowded the courtroom and two nearby halls to gather for the verdict. When the convictions were announced, some of the spectators wept.

Italian health minister Renato Balduzzi hailed the verdict by the three-judge Turin court as “without exaggeration, truly historic,” noting that it came after a long battle for justice. “It’s a great day, but that doesn’t mean the battle against asbestos is over”.

The court’s verdict also included awards of monetary damages from civil lawsuits from some 6,300 victims or their relatives who alleged that loved ones either died or were left ill from asbestos.

The defendants were also ordered to pay €25 million to the town of Casale Monferrato, where one of the factories was located and where asbestos was used in road construction, and €20m to the Piedmont region.

A woman who helped spearhead the efforts for compensation, Romana Blasotti, and three of her relatives, were awarded €240,000. Ms Blassotti lost her husband, a former Eternit factory worker, a daughter and three other relatives to asbestos-linked diseases.

“Justice has been rendered to the families,” Bruno Pesce, who heads one of the associations of victims, said.

The company closed its Italian operations in 1986, six years before asbestos was banned in Italy. Asbestos became popular among manufacturers and builders in the late 19th century because of its sound absorption and resistance to fire, heat and electrical damage.

It is now banned in much of the West, but it is still being used as building insulation in developing countries.

Schmidheiny took over leadership of the Swiss Eternit Group from his father in 1976, while De Cartier De Marchienne was a shareholder and manager of Eternit in Italy in the early 1970s.