Eternit-bis, Stephan Schmidheiny’s sentence annulled: everything to be redone for the death of Giulio Testore

Everything needs to be redone for the Eternit-bis judicial affair where, on appeal, the Swiss tycoon Stephan Schmidheiny was sentenced to 1 year and 8 months for manslaughter due to the death of Giulio Testore, an employee of Saca di Cavagnolo (Turin). The Court of Cassation, in the last hearing, annulled the conviction by sending the case back to a different section of the Court of Appeal of Turin. The reasons for the cancellation are not yet known.

Testore he died in 2008 due to asbestosis from exposure to asbestos. «And so the statute of limitations looms and the victims are left without justice» – says the lawyer Ezio Bonanni, president of the National Asbestos Observatory.

In 2018, at first instance, Schmidheiny was sentenced to 4 years in prison for manslaughter. Beyond Testore, who had breathed the mineral on the job for twenty-seven years, the case of had been examined Rita Rondano, who died in 2012 from pleural mesothelioma. The woman had suffered double exposure to the killer fiber. Because she lived less than a kilometer from Saca di Cavagnolo and why he worked on agricultural land contaminated by crocidolite particles. Schidheiny’s defense had challenged the provision and on appeal, in a partial reform of the sentence applied, the Swiss tycoon had to answer exclusively for Testore’s death.

The sentence was therefore reduced to 1 year and 8 months of imprisonment, with the granting of the benefit of conditional suspension. The Court had also excluded the right to compensation for the worker’s relatives because they were signatories of a settlement to close another criminal trial against other Eternit managers. The Testore heirs had therefore appealed to the Court of Cassation, but also Schmidheiny’s lawyers, who obtained the exclusion of compensation in favor of the bodies and associations constituted as civil parties, including the National Asbestos Observatory. «We cannot understand, nor agree with, the Court’s decision – explains the lawyer Bonanno. Our commitment, however, will continue in all the competent offices, for the clean-up, safety, medical and compensation protection of all the victims and their families”.