Italy: ThyssenKrupp CEO sentenced to 16.5 years in prison for murder after the fire in the Turin establishment in 2007

After an investigation completed in record time, the case referred to the assize court with, for the first time in the case of a deadly industrial accident, murder charges for the highest-ranking manager in the company, the verdict issued on Friday, April 15th by the Court of Turin in the trial against ThyssenKrupp for the death of 7 workers in the fire which broke out on the group’s Turin establishment on the night of December 6, 2007 (see our dispatch No.  080913), is “historical.”  Following the Prosecution’s requisitions managing director Harald Espenhahn was sentenced to 16 and a half years in prison for murder and the other managers, Gerald Priegnitz, Marco Pucci, Raffaele Salerno and Cosimo Cafuerri, to 13 and a half years, and Daniele Moroni to 10 years and 10 months for negligent manslaughter, all with “conscious fault.”  ThyssenKrupp was sentenced to a €9.5M fine in compensation for the civil party, the expenses of the trail and the financial penalty imposed to the company accused as a corporate body, in keeping with the provisions of Act No. 123 of August 3, 2007 (see our dispatch No.  070690).  The trade unions claiming damages (Fim-Cisl, Fiom-CGIL, Uilm-Uil and Flmu-Cub) as well as the Medicina Democratica association got €100,000 each.  The man who survived the fire, Antonio Boccuzzi, received temporary compensation in the amount of €50,000, while the workers present on the night of the fire, suffering from posttraumatic pathologies, received compensation ranging between €77,000 and €237,000.