44 sent to trial in Ilva case

(ANSA) - Taranto, July 23 - 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 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.