Viareggio manslaughter convictions quashed

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 8 - Italy's top court on Friday quashed manslaughter convictions in the 2009 rail disaster at Viareggio that killed 32 people and sent the trial back to the second appeals level in Florence, including for former rail chief Mauro Moretti.
    The supreme Court of Cassation said the manslaughter charges had timed out under the statute of limitations.
    The high court ruled out the aggravating factor of breaking work safety norms.
    In June 2019 former Italian railways (Ferrovie dello Stato, FS) chief Moretti and former head of rail network company RFI Michele Mario Elia were convicted and sentenced to seven and six years respectively on appeal for the June 29, 2009 rail disaster at Viareggio on the Tuscan coast in which the 32 people died.
    Former Trenitalia rail group CEO Vincenzo Soprano got six years too.
    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.
    After Friday's ruling by the Cassation Court, victims' relatives burst into tears outside the high-court building. (ANSA).