Senior officials with steelmaker
ThyssenKrupp are likely to face stiffer sentences after the
Supreme Court of Cassation struck down lighter prison terms for
their convictions over the deaths of seven workers at a plant
fire in 2007.
Last year 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 sentence marked 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
prison to 13 and a half years.
A fifth employee saw his sentence increased.
But those verdicts were quashed by the Cassation later on
Thursday, which has ordered a new Appeals level trial in Turin.
"With the decision taken last night, the responsibility of
the accused for the Thyssen fire is established and the risk is
that the punishments will be increased at the new appeals
trial," a source at the Cassation said Friday.
This position was echoed by Turin Prosecutor Raffaele
Guariniello.
"In the new appeals trial, we'll call for an increase of
the punishments for the accused," said Guariniello.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
