A preliminary hearings judge on
Thursday sent to trial 44 people and three companies for an
alleged environmental disaster caused by the troubled Ilva steel
works in Taranto.
Two other people were sentenced after a fast-track trial.
Ilva's highly polluting plant in the Puglia port city has
been linked to a high incidence of cancer in the city.
The works have been closed on several occasions by judicial
inquiries but the government is now helping fund a clean-up to
save jobs at the works, the city's largest employer.
In March, the Italian government approved a decree rescuing
the insolvent Ilva plant at Taranto after the cash-strapped
steel manufacturer got 400 million euros in State-backed loans
from the national government's Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP).
The cabinet also approved a 260-million euro bridge loan.
Extraordinary commissioners are now managing Ilva as the
troubled plant goes through a massive environmental cleanup and
financial turnaround project.
The company owes debts totalling nearly 3 billion euros,
according to bankruptcy judges.
Last October, the European Commission ordered the Italian
government to deal with the longstanding health and environment
problems at the Ilva steel plant.
It had been pressing Italy to ensure the plant complies
with laws on industrial emissions and health standards, and said
last fall that some "serious shortcomings" had been resolved.
But other problems around management of waste, protection
of soil, and groundwater are outstanding, the EC said.
The Ilva plant has been at the center of controversy for
years over serious health concerns about decades of deadly
pollution.
At the same time, local residents fought hard to preserve
as many as 20,000 plant-related jobs during environmental
clean-up.
Part of the Taranto plant was seized by judges to cover
some of the costs of cleaning it up and meeting damage claims
related to high levels of cancer in the area, which have
persisted into the present.
In July 2014, prosecutors in Taranto said they were
investigating concerns that carpenters working at the plant have
suffered incidents of thyroid cancer.
On the same day a Taranto court found 23 former ILVA
managers guilty in connection with a wave of asbestos and other
carcinogen-linked deaths city.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA