Sawt Falasteen - Ex-Italian highway head gets 12 years for deadly Genoa bridge collapse

Giovanni Castellucci was found guilty of vehicle homicide and negligence related to the collapse of the bridge in Genoa that killed 43 people in one of the country's worst infrastructure disasters.

The courtroom was packed with relatives of those who plunged to their deaths when the Morandi Bridge -- part of a key highway connecting France and Italy -- gave way in torrential rain on August 14, 2018.

Thursday's verdict comes after four years of trial hearings for 57 defendants on charges of manslaughter, endangering transport safety and falsifying official documents.

The prosecution had requested jail sentences adding up to more than 400 years in total, including 18 years for Castellucci.

Egle Possetti lost her sister, nephew, niece and brother-in-law when pillar nine of the bridge collapsed.

A conviction "won't bring them back", she told AFP before the verdict.

"But clearly the most important thing for the victims is that the truth finally comes out".

During the years-long trial, "not a single person has said, 'I bear some responsibility.' That has been hard," Possetti said.

Italy's deputy transport secretary, Edoardo Rixi, wrote in a note that Thursday's ruling marked an "important step on the path of truth and justice".

"The collapse was not a fatal accident, but the result of serious errors and omissions by those who had a duty to ensure safety. It is right that responsibility has finally been established," wrote Rixi.

- 'Ticking time bomb' -

The findings of the magistrates' investigation were damning: "Between the inauguration in 1967 and the collapse, i.e. 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 nine, which came crashing down in morning traffic.

Prosecutor Walter Cotugno dubbed the bridge "a ticking time bomb".

Most of the defendants were 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.

Besides Castellucci, they included the former head of Spea, Antonino Galata, as well as officials from the infrastructure ministry.

ASPI's executive in charge of maintenance, Michele Mitelli, was sentenced to 11 years, while the group's number two, Paolo Berti, received five years and six months.

Castellucci was accused of postponing work on pillar number nine. He 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.

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

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.

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.

E.Aziz--SF-PST