Sawt Falasteen - Italy court to rule in deadly bridge collapse case

The Morandi Bridge in Genoa, part of a key highway connecting France and Italy, gave way in torrential rain on August 14, 2018 sending dozens of vehicles tumbling into the abyss.

Thursday's verdict concludes a four-year trial largely focused on maintenance of the bridge, which was inaugurated in 1967.

The prosecution has requested jail sentences adding up to more than 400 years for the 57 defendants, on charges of manslaughter, endangering transport safety, and falsifying official documents.

- 'The truth' -

"We hope they will be convicted, but clearly the most important thing for the victims is that the truth finally comes out," Egle Possetti, who heads a committee of relatives of the victims, told AFP.

"Unfortunately, it won't bring them back," said Possetti, whose sister, nephew, niece, and brother-in-law died when pillar 9 of the bridge collapsed.

The findings of the magistrates' investigation are damning: "Between the inauguration in 1967 and the collapse, ie. 51 years later, not even minimal maintenance work was carried out to reinforce the stays of pillar number 9".

Work had been carried out on two other pillars, numbers 10 and 11, and was planned for number 9.

"The Morandi Bridge was a ticking time bomb. You could hear the ticking, but you didn't know when it was going to explode," prosecutor Walter Cotugno said during the trial.

Most of the defendants are executives and technicians from Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI), which runs almost half of the country's motorway network, and engineering company Spea, in charge of maintenance.

They include the general manager of Autostrade at the time, Giovanni Castellucci, the former head of Spea, Antonino Galata, and officials of the infrastructure ministry.

- Construction 'defect' -

Castellucci is accused of postponing work on pier number 9 and faces 18 years in prison.

Lawyer Giovanni Paolo Accinni, a member of his legal team, told Italian media Castellucci was nothing more than a "scapegoat" who in truth had "insisted that the pier reinforcement work be carried out".

The defence's main argument is that the bridge had a hidden construction defect, namely corrosion of the bridge's cables, and it was this that caused its collapse, not a lack of maintenance.

Castellucci is already serving time for his role in a 2013 accident in which a bus crashed through the barriers of a viaduct, killing 40 people.

Even though their former directors are on trial, Autostrade and Spea reached an out-of-court settlement with the public prosecutor's office, which provides for a payment of 29 million euros ($30 million) to the state.

Only two families of the victims refused to accept compensation offered by Autostrade, which has paid out more than 60 million euros.

At the time of the tragedy, Autostrade belonged to the Atlantia group, controlled by the wealthy Benetton family, but faced with popular indignation the family subsequently gave up its stake to the state.

W.Mansour--SF-PST