Former Italian railways
(Ferrovie dello Stato, FS) chief Mauro Moretti and former head
of rail network company RFI Michele Mario Elia were sentenced to
seven years each on Tuesday for the June 29, 2009 rail disaster
at Viareggio in which 32 people died.
Prosecutors had requested 16 years for Moretti, now CEO of
defence and aerospace giant Leonardo, and 15 for Elia.
Shares in Leonardo dropped 3.4% on the Milan bourse on the
news of Moretti's conviction.
In total 33 individuals and nine companies were tried on
various charges including rail disaster, multiple manslaughter,
culpable fire and culpable injuries.
The court made 10 acquittals in the trial.
Moretti was convicted in his capacity as former RFI CEO but
acquitted as former FS CEO, his lawyers explained on Tuesday.
FS and FS Logistica were among the companies acquitted, while
RFI and Trenitalia were found guilty.
Moretti's lawyer Armando D'Apote described the verdict as a
"scandalous outcome of the trial and I stress the fruit of the
populism that oozes from the sentence".
However, he voiced "partial satisfaction" that Moretti had
been acquitted in his former capacity as FS CEO, and at the
acquittal of FS itself.
Victims' relatives applauded briefly after the sentence but
said they would comment on the verdict on Wednesday.
Meanwhile former Viareggio mayor Luca Lunardini said the
ruling had "provided some comfort".
"The judges' decision shows what we always said: that it was
not a natural event but caused by Man," said Lunardini.
He said Viareggio was not "seeking revenge, but justice" from
the court.
"Certainly, the prosecutors' requests were higher and the
sentence has been halved, and that leaves us a little perplexed.
But you don't comment on sentences, you respect them".
Separately, Tuscany regional Governor Enrico Rossi stressed
the importance of the sentence not timing out under the statute
of limitations.
"It's important that it all hasn't already timed out, and I
think this sentence corresponds to a need for justice, raised
with much firmness and force by the victims and the entire city
of Viareggio," he said.
"As a region we were civil plaintiffs in this trial and so we
behaved as it was fit and proper to do," he went on.
The events of June 29, 2009, when a freight train derailed at
Viareggio and the gas it was carrying exploded into a fireball
engulfing the station and nearby areas of the coastal Tuscan
town, was "a real tragedy which will be remembered over time,
and I don't think anyone can really heal the wound that that
dramatic event brought on the city. Thirty-two people died
suddenly, without any warning, unexpectedly", Rossi added.
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