Youth Reference (20 June 2013, 20 editions)

On June 3, the Supreme Court of Turin, Italy, ruled on the world’s largest asbestos death case, and sentenced the former owner of the fiber cement company Etternet, the Swiss billionaire Stefan Smidhine, to 18 years. punishment.

Over the past few decades, more than 3,000 Eternity employees and residents near the factory have died of lung cancer due to excessive inhalation of asbestos fibers, and Smidhine and Eternity's original shareholder and CEO, 91 years old. The Belgian Baron Jean Malkien was found to have a major responsibility.

Due to the long duration of the case and the large number of victims, coupled with its indirect promotion of legislation on the use of asbestos in Italy and Europe, it has received much attention. The verdict of the case is also considered to be a landmark event in a similar environmental pollution case.

The case was delayed, this is not the first judgment of the case. In February last year, the Turin Supreme Court made a preliminary ruling on the case. Two defendants, former Estenet boss Stefan Smidhene and former CEO Jean Marchine, were sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The prosecution alleged that they did not take safety measures against the factory when they knew that asbestos would cause harm to the human body, nor did they warn employees of possible dangers, resulting in massive deaths of employees and surrounding residents.

The reason why the sentence was aggravated again after a lapse of one year was because the court considered that Etnenet’s asbestos fiber continued to harm the northern Italian population and decided to change Smidhene’s 18 years’ imprisonment. However, until today, the billionaire still refuses to plead guilty.

The "world's largest asbestos case", which claimed more than 3,000 lives, is extremely complicated. For decades, the number of plaintiffs reached 6,000, involving multiple countries (two defendants from Switzerland and Belgium, factories in Italy, and some workers living in France). Coupled with the prominent background of the two accused, they have repeatedly appealed through various channels, and it seems that the final settlement of the case will still exist.

At the Supreme Court of Turin on June 3, the 65-year-old Smidh Heine did not appear in court. The court just announced that his spokesperson in Zurich, Switzerland, announced that he would continue to appeal to the Supreme Court of Rome. In 2008, the Swiss Federal Court also overturned the previous allegations of murder, murder and bodily harm to Smidh Heine and Malkienni on the grounds that the statute of limitations was overdue.

Although there have been media fears that it is difficult for the two defendants to be severely punished by the law - the case may be dragged on for several years, and the 91-year-old Malkienni waited for the day to go to jail. However, this judgment is still receiving much attention.

The families of hundreds of victims made a special trip to Turin to hear the court pronounced the sentence, and even more than 100 people came from France. They produced a unified T-shirt and held slogans such as "Etnett: Justice!", "Shame", and "Guilty" and gathered inside and outside the courtroom. At the moment of the verdict, cheers broke out in the crowd, and many people burst into tears.