The ‘Environment sold out’ trial in the Court of Assizes in Taranto, relating to the environmental disaster attributed to Ilva under the management of the Riva industrial group, reaches an initial conclusion five years after the start (first hearing 17 May 2016). After the council chamber which had begun around 11 pm on May 19th, on Monday May 31st at 10 am the President of the Court, Stefania D’Errico, will read the operative part of the sentence. The trial has 47 defendants. There are 44 individuals and three companies: Ilva in extraordinary administration, formerly Riva Fire and Riva Forni Elettrici.
The decisions of the board are awaited awaiting the relevance of the process that arises following the seizure of the plants in the hot area of the Ilva steelworks in Taranto and the arrests that took place starting from 26 July 2012 on the orders of the investigating judge Patrizia Todisco . The four pm of the trial (Mariano Buccoliero, Remo Epifani, Raffaele Graziano e Giovanna Cannarile) asked for sentences for about 400 years in total, various fines against companies – which are liable for the law on corporate administrative liability – and the confiscation of steel plants. The board will also have to decide on the possible allocation of provisional payments to the civil parties: 902 between private individuals, trade unions, associations, local authorities and the Environment and Health ministries. Claims for compensation amount to approximately € 30 billion.
“Twenty-eight years in prison for Riva, 5 years for Vendola”, the requests of the prosecutor for the Ilva environmental disaster
The major requests for conviction of prosecutors concern Fabio Riva, former owner and former administrator Ilva; Luigi Capogrosso, former director of the Taranto plant, e Girolamo Archinà, former consultant of the Riva for institutional relations. For each of them, the prosecution asked for 28 years of imprisonment. For Nicola Riva, Fabio’s brother, also former owner and Ilva administrator, were asked for 25 years. The main charges for these defendants are criminal association for crimes against the public administration (corruption, extortion and forgery); the fact of operating “with continuity and full awareness a massive spillage activity in the air causing a very serious danger to public health and causing illness and death”; finally, “the failure to adequately manage plants and equipment to prevent the release of an enormous amount of diffuse and fugitive emissions”.
They are also accused on charges of conspiracy Francesco Perli, Ilva lawyer, and the Riva trustees (consultants with great decision-making powers) Lanfranco Legnani, Alfredo Ceriani, Giovanni Rebaioli, Agostino Pastorino ed Enrico Bessone. As well as for the massive spillage activity, the failure to prevent an “enormous amount” of emissions, the contamination of the land with the poisoning of 2 thousand 271 head of cattle and the destruction of several tons of soldiers from the first breast of the Mar Piccolo di Taranto poisoned by dioxins, PCBs and heavy metals, executives are also accused Marco Andelmi, Angelo Cavallo, Ivan Di Maggio, Salvatore De Felice, Salvatore D’Alò, the former president Bruno Ferrante (excluded in relation to the head of cattle), and the former director of the iron and steel industry of Taranto and current director general of Acciaierie d’Italia, Adolfo Buffo.
The penalties requested are twenty years for Buffo (who is also responsible for two fatal accidents at work); seven for Perli (who responds together with the former Apulian governor Nichi Vendola of pressure on the leaders of Arpa Puglia, the regional environmental protection agency, to soften their reports on Ilva pollution) and 17 years each for Ferrante, Andelmi, Cavallo, Di Maggio, De Felice and D’Alò. Twenty years of imprisonment were instead requested for Legnani, Ceriani, Rebaioli, Pastorino, Bessone (all “fiduciaries” of Riva). Seventeen years for Lorenzo Liberti, the former consultant of the Prosecutor’s Office accused of having pocketed from Ilva, through Archinà, a bribe of 10 thousand euros to falsify a technical report and thus not allow the Prosecutor to operate.
Ilva trial, Vendola’s defense: “Its measures only protect the environment and workers”
Five years were then asked for the former governor Vendola for the affair relating to the pressure on Arpa Puglia, and four years for Gianni Florido, former president of the Province of Taranto, due to pressure on the structure of the Province body in relation to some environmental authorizations for Ilva. Finally, the prosecutors asked that the former mayor of Taranto not have to proceed, due to a statute of limitations Ezio Stefàno (he reported the damage caused by Ilva pollution to the Prosecutor’s Office, but did not act with measures) and for the former manager of the blast furnaces, in the meantime returned to Taranto where he has been director of the plant for Acciaierie d’Italia for a month, Vincenzo Distromatteo (omitted cautions on industrial risks).