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.