The eternity process continues to shake public opinion: the cassation has the punishment of Stephan Schmidheiny. Between recipes and legal fights, the victims of asbestos run the risk not to obtain justice. The National Asbestos Observatory promises not to surrender
The Supreme Court still destroys the punishment on Schmidheiny
New turn in the Eternit process. After the Supreme Court had declared the crime prescribed in 2014, as a result of which every possibility of compensation was blocked, there is now a further statement: the Cassation cancels for the second time the conviction of the Swiss magnate Stephan Schmidheiny.
Eternit -Process: a judicial drama
The judicial drama started in 1993, when some eternal managers end up for the deaths caused by asbestos. In December 2009, the investigation broadened and the leaders of the company brought to the bar: the Swiss industrialist Stephan Schmidheiny and the Belgian Louis de Cartier. Both are accused of arson in the territory that the Eternit plants organized: Casal Monferrato, Cavagnolo, Bagnoli van Naples and Rubiera dell’Emilia.
After three years of legal battle, the first instance sentenced the defendants to 16 years in prison and the payment of major compensation to the victims. However, the death of the cartier before the judgment excludes all responsibility against him. In 2013, the Turin Court of Appeal confirmed the sentence for Schmidheiny, but the following year the cassation destroys everything: the crime is prescribed and the Swiss industrial elaborates out of the trial.
The ECO Report Act reopens the eternal matter
In 2015, with the introduction to Italy of the Eco-report law, the case reopens. The Eternit BIS process begins on 12 May of that year, with a new accusation for Schmidheiny: malignant murder for the death of 258 people who are exposed to asbestos.
The victims include the stories of Giulio Testero, a former employee of the Cavagnolo factory, who died in 2008 after 27 years of exposure to the murderer fibers, and Rita Rondano, who died in 2012 for pleurally mesotheliom. The latter had undergone a double exposure: residential areas, less than a kilometer from the factory and working, operating on contaminated land.
New sponsor of the cassation
But the cassation, with a new SponsCoup, still cancels the sentence on Schmidheiny. An opinion that shakes the foundations of the eternity process and the risk of jeopardizing current legal fights.
The response of the National Asbestos Observatory
«This judgment can have important consequences about the eternity processes arising from the research started by the office of the public prosecutor – says the lawyer Ezio BonanniChairman of the national asbestos and legal observatory of some family members -. The risk is that everything is mowed due to the damage to the recipe. We cannot understand and neither share the decision of the court. Our dedication will continue at all competent locations, for recovery, safety, medical protection and compensation for all victims and their family members ».
In 2018, the court initially sentenced Schmidheiny to 4 years in prison for manslaughter. The entrepreneur’s defense had challenged the sentence and on appeal the sentence was reduced to 1 year and 8 months with conditional suspension, which limited the responsibility for the death of the test.
“There is a risk of the crime of crime that will take place on 7 June 2026, where on that date it will not be achieved for a definitive punishment. It is clear that this leaves the bitterness in the mouth. As a national asbestos observatory we will continue and do not give up»Bonanni concludes.