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11 Italian Asbestos Deaths: New Conviction (May 24, 2019)

Five years after the Italian Supreme Court had vacated guilty verdicts against the Swiss asbestos billionaire Stephen Schmidheiny on technical grounds (2014), the defendant has once again been convicted of the asbestos deaths of Italian citizens.1 Shortly after mid-day on May 23, 2019, a Turin Court sentenced 71-year old Schmidheiny, the former majority shareholder in the Italian Eternit asbestos company, in absentia to four years for the involuntary manslaughter of two individuals from Cavagnolo, both of whom died from asbestos-related diseases; one of the deceased was a former Eternit employee who succumbed to asbestosis while the other was a woman who lived in the area near the company’s Cavagnolo factory and died from lung cancer.2 Public Prosecutor Prosecutor Gianfranco Colace had sought a seven year prison sentence, the maximum allowable.

3 Eternit asbestos billionaire sentenced to prison by Turin court. May 23, 2019.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/toxic-substance-_eternit-asbestos-billionaire-sentenced-to-prison-by-turin-court/44984134

12 Italy’s Hope and Glory (August 3, 2016)

In 2014 Italy’s Supreme Court (Court of Cassation) had overturned on technical grounds a 2012 conviction which had sentenced Schmidheiny (former owner of the Swiss Eternit asbestos group) to 18 years in jail for negligence and wilful disaster as a result of which thousands of workers and members of the public had died. Even as the Supreme Court had been deliberating its decision in the final appeal of that case, Public Prosecutors had begun investigating grounds for bringing another case against Schmidheiny; one in which he could be accused of murder. Schmidheiny’s legal team claimed that the new case was void under the legal principle of double jeopardy – a person could not be tried twice for the same crime. The investigating magistrate asked for guidance on this issue from the Constitutional Court which heard the case on May 31, 2016. Referencing a number of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, it rejected arguments submitted by Schmidheiny’s defense team explaining that were one not to consider the claims of these victims, future claimants would also be denied their rights.3 Commenting on the import of this verdict, former Turin Public Prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello, who pioneered the litigation against Schmidheiny, said: “this ruling will rekindle the faith in justice in Italy and in the world.”

The murder case has now been returned to the Turin court of investigating magistrate Federica Bompieri who had in July 2015 asked the Constitutional Court to rule on whether or not the Schmidheiny indictment on 258 murder charges could proceed. Bompieri could make important pre-trial rulings or refer the case to the Court of Assizes after the trial.

“if the GUP [investigating magistrate] agrees to hold hearings on the extensive evidence and rule on whether the charges can be reduced from murder to manslaughter… then some cases might be excluded on grounds of statute of limitations, and the jurisdiction of the court might be removed to a more rural district from Turin. On the other hand, the GUP could simply turn the case over to the Court of Assizes in Turin, which would then hear all the evidence and decide at the end of the trial whether to convict SS [Schmidheiny] for murder or manslaughter.

13 Global Asbestos Hegemony; Global Asbestos Crimes (February 14, 2016)

Schmidheiny has, indeed, already been tried three times for Italian asbestos crimes; he was convicted by the Turin Court (2012) and the Appeal Court (2013) of causing a permanent environmental disaster as a result of which 3,000+ Italians died. These verdicts were overturned by the Italian Supreme Court (Court of Cassation) in November 2014 due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

In the wake of that reversal, Turin Public Prosecutors Raffaele Guariniello and Gianfranco Colace accused Schmidheiny of the manslaughter of hundreds of other Italians; there is no statute of limitation for this crime.

14 LKA Blog (January 26, 2016)

Their actions succeeded in attracting the attention of the Turin public prosecutor who spent over a decade investigating their claims before initiating a lawsuit on their behalf. Every facet of this story deserves to be told.

15 LKA Blog (October 7, 2015)

Despite the known threat posed by the asbestos hazard, contaminated products continue to subvert national and regional asbestos bans. Last week, it was announced that Turin public prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello was investigating the discovery that more than 8,600 cars purchased in Italy from China’s Great Wall Motors were contaminated with asbestos-containing components; indictments are expected shortly against two Italian businessmen.1 In February this year (2015), the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service admitted it was unable to guarantee that imported Chinese goods were asbestos-free.2 Asbestos-contaminated imports from China have included plasterboard — a disaster for plasterers — gaskets, trains, mining equipment and vehicles.

16 Italian Asbestos Verdict Due on Friday! (July 20, 2015)

On Friday, July 24, 2015, Judge Federica Bompieri will hand down a momentous decision in a court in Turin, Italy. She will decide whether to comply with a request from the Turin Public Prosecutors Raffaele Guariniello and Gianfranco Colace for a new criminal trial against asbestos billionaire Stephen Schmidheiny.

his morning, Judge Federica Bompieri informed the Turin court that she had suspended her decision regarding the charges against defendant Stephan Schmidheiny pending a ruling by Italy’s Constitutional Court on the issue of “double jeopardy.” Placing the matter in the hands of the higher court, the preliminary hearing judge cited article 649 of the criminal proceeding code which differentiates between “historical” and “juridical” facts.

17 LKA Blog (March 17, 2015)

It is now more than a month since the Italian Supreme Court (Court of Cassation) overturned guilty verdicts, previously upheld in the Turin Appeal Court (see: 2013 Appeal Verdict in the Great Asbestos Trial), in a case brought over the asbestos deaths of thousands of Italian citizens.

The 2012 jail sentences handed down by a Turin Court to former asbestos businessmen Stephan Schmidheiny and Jean-Louis de Cartier de Marchienne were landmarks in the global fight for asbestos justice.

According to the press reports, asbestos contamination was rife at the Olivetti plant in Ivrea, thirty-five kilometres from Turin. A particularly worrying source of exposure was the talc used in the manufacturing process; it was contaminated with tremolite asbestos.

the risk posed by tremolite contamination at the plant and the existence of a 1981 Turin Polytechnic report which highlighted the hazard;

18 Manchester’s Action Mesothelioma Day 2014 (July 7, 2014)

After a 3-year trial, Stephan Schmidheiny, the former owner of the Eternit group was sentenced to 18 years in jail in 2013 by the Turin Court of Appeal; he was found guilty of environmental disaster. In the meantime, another criminal trial against Eternit is being prepared: Stephan Schmidheiny is now being sued for mass murder.

19 Review: Maria Roselli, The Asbestos Lie: The Past and Present of an Industrial Catastrophe (June 24, 2014)

In 2009, a trial began in Turin in which Stephan Schmidheiny answered charges of causing an environmental disaster and failing to protect workers. In 2012, Schmidheiny (and another executive) were held responsible for the deaths in Italy of about 1,800 people and the illnesses of several thousand others.

20 Postscript to the Great Asbestos Trial (February 18, 2014)

On February 13, 2012, Stephan Schmidheiny and Jean-Louis de Cartier de Marchienne were found guilty for their part in the humanitarian catastrophe caused by Eternit's asbestos operations in Italy. The defendants in this criminal case were convicted of causing wilful permanent environmental disaster and failing to comply with safety rules as a result of which thousands of Italians died from asbestos-related diseases.1 For their crimes, Schmidheiny and Marchienne were sentenced by the Turin Court to 16 years in prison and ordered to pay 6,392 injured parties compensation estimated at more than €5 million.2

In recognition of the enormous international interest in this case, for the first time ever the provision of simultaneous translation into English and French was sanctioned by the authorities of the Turin Court; these translations were streamed live over the internet.

As we heard the English translator pronounce the words “In the name of the Italian people, the Turin criminal court declares the defendants Schmidheiny and De Cartier guilty,” we knew that the victims' 30-year campaign for justice had succeeded. Commenting on the outcome, the Associazione Famigliari Vittime Amianto (Association of Asbestos Victims' Families) said:

Turin Public Prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello, who pioneered this landmark case, told journalists surrounding him in the aftermath of the verdict: “Today we have the right to dream that justice can be done and must be done.” Guariniello has already started work on Eternit 2, a case involving hundreds of Italians who have died since 2009 from asbestos-related diseases.

In France, attempts to replicate the Turin process are being made3 but success is yet to be achieved, while in Brazil, another country which has experienced massive damage at the hands of Eternit, prosecutors regard the 700+-page Italian verdict as a precedent to be used in all ongoing actions in the country.

A fortnight later (July 16), it was reported that Schmidheiny's legal team had submitted a 500-page appeal to the Turin Court, which looked to overturn the verdict on grounds of constitutionality, jurisdiction and statute of limitations.

Attempts by the defendants to quash the verdict suffered a serious setback on March 4, 2013 when the President of the Turin Court of Appeal not only validated the first instance guilty ruling but also rejected the defendants' ploy to halt the ongoing proceedings. The appeal proceedings had nearly reached completion when on May 21, 2013 the death of 91-year old defendant Louis de Cartier de Marchienne was reported.

On June 3, 2013 the Appeal Court not only upheld the first instance verdict but upped Schmidheiny's prison sentence from 16 to 18 years.4 The proceedings were closely watched by Italian asbestos victims and campaigners who were joined in the Turin court by colleagues from France, Belgium and Switzerland, countries where Eternit asbestos operations also caused a massive loss of life.

The 2012 verdict of the Turin Court and the 2013 judgment of the Appeal Court were great victories not only for the people of Casale Monferrato and other Italian towns where people's lives counted for nothing in Eternit's pursuit for profits, but also for asbestos victims elsewhere. These judgments give us hope that in every jurisdiction around the world asbestos profiteers can be held to account for the damage they have done.