Genoa bridge trial opens 4 years after collapse
July 7, 2022
A trial over the collapse of a bridge in Genoa, Italy, begins on Thursday. A former a CEO of a company in charge of the motorway's maintenance and Italian infrastructure ministers are among those expected to take the stand.
The Morandi highway, which fell in 2018, killed 43 people. The court case involves 59 defendants who are being prosecuted for manslaughter and undermining transport safety.
"The trial is expected to be long and complex," said Egle Possetti, spokesperson for the victims' relatives committee, who lost her sister, brother-in-law and two nephews in the collapse.
"We hope that there will be no loopholes to interrupt the thread of truth and justice that has already emerged in the investigation," added Possetti. "In Italy, trials are long and unfortunately often have unfavorable outcomes for the victims.”
The court case is likely to last more than a year. Prosecutors have assembled a list of 178 witnesses, including Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI) CEO Roberto Tomasi and two former infrastructure ministers that they want to call to the stand.
Experts examine Italy's highway network
Half of Italy's motorway network is run by ASPI, which is accused of failing to maintain the bridge.
ASPI belonged to the Atlantia group at the time of the tragedy. The wealthy Benetton family, who controls Atlantia group, gave up its stake in the company to the state last may after mounting political and social pressure.
Former Atlantia CEO Giovanni Castellucci will also take the stand. Castellucci faces charges of endangering safety on the roads and willful failure to take precautions to prevent disasters – charges that carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Castellucci's lawyers believe that the indictment "will fall like an autumn leaf.”
"I hope that a truth emerges that will be as objective as possible. Above all, I hope that no summary justice is carried out," said Guido Alleva, one of Castellucci's lawyers.
The Reuters news agency cited documents on the findings of an expert report about the bridge collapse. According to the documents, prosecutors said that "the collapse was triggered by the rupture of the load-bearing cables inside the stay of the bridge's ninth pillar, which were eaten away by a highly corrosive atmosphere over the 51 years of the bridge's life."
Lawyers of many of the defendants dispute findings from the report and could ask the court to annul it and commission a new one, according to legal sources.
A ticking time bomb
Walter Cotugno, one of the prosecutors in the trial, believes that the directors of Autostrade and Spea, the engineering company in charge of maintenance, knew about the bridge's condition well before the collapse. "The Morandi bridge was a time bomb," he said.
However, former directors of Autostrade and SEPA will not stand trial. The two companies settled out of court with the public prosecutor's office for a payment of 29 million euros ($30 million) to the state.
A lawyer for the relatives of the Morandi bridge victims believes that the agreement "constitutes a first recognition of responsibility."
"This is one of the most important trials in the recent history of Italy, in terms of the number of defendants, the scale of the tragedy and in terms of the wound inflicted on a whole city," he told the AFP news agency.
asw/fb (AFP, Reuters)