Moretti get 7 yrs for Viareggio disaster

(ANSA) - Lucca, June 20 - Former Italian railways (Ferrovie dello Stato, FS) chief Mauro Moretti and former head of rail network company RFI Michele Mario Elia were convicted and sentenced to seven and six years respectively on appeal on Thursday for the June 29, 2009 rail disaster at Viareggio in which 32 people died.
    Former Trenitalia rail group CEO Vincenzo Soprano got six years too.
    But ex-RFI technical director Giulio Margarita, who got six and a half years at the first-instance trial in December 2017, was acquitted.
    The sentences are subject to a second appeal, the the supreme Court of Cassation. Prosecutors had requested 16 years for Moretti, now CEO of defence and aerospace giant Leonardo, and 15 for Elia for their alleged role in the tragedy, when a freight train derailed and the gas it was carrying exploded into a fireball engulfing the station and nearby areas of the coastal Tuscan town.
    In total 33 individuals and nine companies were tried on various charges including rail disaster, multiple manslaughter, culpable fire and culpable injuries.
    Moretti was convicted in his capacity as former RFI CEO but acquitted as former FS CEO, his lawyers explained.
    Overall, the court made 10 acquittals in the trial.
    FS and FS Logistica were among the companies acquitted.