Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation
was asked Friday to uphold the reduced sentences for senior
officials with steelmaker ThyssenKrupp who were convicted in the
deaths of seven works at a plant fire in 2007.
Prosecutors asked the Cassation Court to uphold earlier
decisions by an appeal court reducing the original sentences.
In early 2013, an appeal court had reduced the first-degree
homicide sentence for Harald Espenhahn, the former chief
executive officer (CEO) of the Italian division of Germany's
ThyssenKrupp steelmaker.
It reduced Espenhahn's sentence to 10 years from 16 and a
half years, prompting outraged families of the victims to stage
a sit-in.
The initial sentences stemmed from a fatal fire in December
2007 at ThyssenKrupp steelworks, marking one of the first times
at a workplace death trial in Italy that a senior official was
convicted of homicide.
Sentences were also reduced last year for four other
ThyssenKrupp managers who were convicted of manslaughter, and
initially received jail sentences ranging from 10 years in to
prison to 13 and a half years.
A fifth employee saw his sentence increased.
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