Roundup: Italian court sentences Olivetti's former managers in asbestos trial

An Italian court on Monday sentenced several former managers of electronics company Olivetti over the death of some 10 workers who were exposed to asbestos at the firm's plant in the town of Ivrea, in the northwest Piedmont region, local media reported.

Former president of Olivetti Carlo De Benedetti, who led the firm between 1978 and 1996, was convicted for manslaughter and culpable injuries, and sentenced to five years and two months in jail, Ansa news agency said.

His brother Franco De Benedetti, chief executive offices (CEO) in the company from 1978 to 1992, was handed the same sentence.

Corrado Passera, former Olivetti chief executive and industry minister in 2011-2013 Prime Minister Mario Monti's government, was sentenced to one year and eleven months in jail.

Overall, seventeen former managers stood accused for manslaughter and culpable injuries in the trial. Judge Elena Stoppini on Monday found fourteen of them variously guilty, and acquitted three.

Among those acquitted were Roberto Colaninno, executive chief in Olivetti between 1996 and 2001 and currently Chairman and CEO of Italian scooter manufacturer Piaggio. He stood accused of one case of culpable injury.

Prosecutors in Ivrea launched the probe in 2013, investigating over the death of 14 employees who had worked in the Olivetti plant between 1970 and 1990, and later fell ill with cancer allegedly connected to asbestos exposure.

According to prosecutors, the lack of security measures in the factory resulted in the workers being exposed to asbestos-rich dust created during production inside the firm.

The trial opened in January 2016, and four of the 14 original cases were later excluded from the proceeding for lack of evident connection between their illness and the exposure to asbestos fibres.

The municipality of Ivrea, and of Piedmont regional capital Turin were among the plaintiffs, along with the relatives of the victims, and the trade unions.

"I am partially satisfied, because the prosecution thesis has been confirmed," prosecutor Laura Longo told reporters after the verdict.

"Yet, this is another case of asbestos-related deaths that could, and should, have been avoided. Olivetti, unlike other firms, kept using asbestos until mid-1990," La Repubblica daily quoted her as saying.

Carlo De Benedetti declared in a statement that he was "amazed and very disappointed by the decision of the court to accept the manifestly unfounded requests of the prosecution."

"I was sentenced for crimes I did not commit. Under my management, Olivetti has always taken the health and safety of every workplace in the utmost consideration," he added.

The manager announced he would appeal the verdict.

Olivetti was founded as a typewriter manufacturer in 1908, later becoming a leading international company for electronic calculators, office machines, and computers, and an iconic brand in the world. In 2003, it merged with telecommunications group Telecom Italia.

The convicted defendants, and Telecom Italia, were ordered to pay about 2 billion euros (2.2 billion U.S. dollars) as partial compensation to the plaintiffs, Ansa also reported.

The Olivetti trial followed two other major asbestos-related judiciary cases in the country.

In 2015, 11 ex managers of Italian tyre producer Pirelli were found guilty of manslaughter by a court in Milan, after it was proved some 24 employees had died due to asbestos exposure.

In 2013, Swiss tycoon Stephan Schmidheiny was sentenced to 18 years in jail, as former owner of construction company Eternit, for negligence over the death of more than 2,200 people exposed to the asbestos dust created by the plants, and for causing a permanent environmental disaster.

The conviction, however, became invalid in 2014 after Italy's Supreme Court ruled the statute of limitations for those charges had passed. Endit