For the first time, a multinational’s management is sentenced for an environmental disaster caused by its foreign subsidiaries. The Court of Turin tried the former CEO of Eternit, Stephan Schmidheiny (65) and Jean Louis de Cartier de Marchienne (91), the former administrator of the Italian subsidiary, for permanent “environmental disaster and willful non-compliance with safety regulations” in the Casale Monferrrato (Alessandria) and Cavagnolo (Turin) establishments. For the other two establishments, Bagnoli (Napoli) and Rubiera (Reggio Emilia), the statute of limitations applied. The two men were sentenced 16 years in prison. They will also have to pay nearly €100 million in damages to the victims and their families. Prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello, who already tried many exemplary environmental occupational safety cases, including ThyssenKrupp (see our dispatch No. 080248), asked for 20 years in prison, saying that the crime “goes on today.” He is already preparing the second Eternit trial focused on the responsibility of the managers for each of the thousands of people who died because of asbestos, and thinking about charging them with voluntary manslaughter.
that the crime “goes on today.” He is already preparing the second Eternit trial focused on the responsibility of the managers for each of the thousands of people who died because of asbestos, and thinking about charging them with voluntary manslaughter.
A “historical” super-trial. With over 3,000 confirmed victims, over 6,300 plaintiffs (victims’ families, sick people and former workers at Eternit’s Italian factories, unions, environmental associations, local governments and institutions, i
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