Billionaire and baron jailed over asbestos deaths

A Swiss billionaire and a Belgian baron were yesterday found guilty and sentenced to 16 years each in prison by an Italian court in a ground breaking trial over more than 3,000 asbestos-related deaths.

Stephan Schmidheiny, 64, the former owner of a company making Eternit fibre cement, and Jean-Louis Marie Ghislain de Cartier de Marchienne, 90, a major shareholder, were sentenced in absentia after being found guilty of causing an environmental disaster and failing to comply with safety regulations.

They were also ordered to pay €30,000 in damages to relatives of people killed by asbestos-related diseases, and €35,000 for every sick person, as well as other payouts expected to total tens of millions of euro.

Hundreds of relatives of victims had waited anxiously for the verdict in a trial which was closely watched as a potential precedent, and they wept, cheered and clapped when the sentence was read aloud.

“It’s a fair verdict which acknowledges their responsibility... the problem now is to see if the condemned men will face up to their obligations, because we’re not sure,” said lawyer Sergio Bonetto.

Prosecutors said Eternit failed to stop asbestos fibres left over from production of roof coverings and pipes at its northern Italian factories from spreading across the region. During the trial, which has stretched on since Dec 2009, some 2,100 deaths or illnesses were blamed on the asbestos fibres, which can cause grave lung problems, including cancer.

Their crimes usually carry a maximum 12-year sentence, but prosecutors had sought a harsher punishment because, they say, the fall-out continues to affect its victims.

Defence lawyers denied the accused had direct responsibility for the Italian company, and the pair have been absent from court throughout.

Italian health minister Renato Balduzzi hailed the verdict by the three-judge Turin court as, “without exaggeration, truly historic”, noting that it came after a long battle for justice.

Eternit went bankrupt six years before asbestos was banned in Italy in 1992.

Asbestos, which was banned in Europe in 2005 but is still widely used in the developing world, was used mainly as building insulation for its sound absorption and resistance to fire, heat and electrical damage.