A court has sentenced six executives of an Italian steelworks to lengthy prison sentences after a fire in 2007 killed seven workers.
The chief executive of ThyssenKrupps in Italy, Harald Espenhahn, was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced last month to 16 ½ years in prison, while five other officials were sentenced to terms up to 13 ½ years, according to Associated Press.
The chief prosecutor in the case, Raffaele Guariniell, called the decision "epoch-making”. He said: "I believe this conviction can mean a lot for the safety of workplaces."
One worker died in the blaze, while six others died later in hospital.
ThyssenKrupps was also fined in relation to the fire, with some reports saying the fine was 1 million Euros and others reporting as much as 9.26 million Euros. The company was also barred from receiving state subsidies for six months.
In a statement after the convictions last month, the German headquartered company said:
"ThyssenKrupp expresses its deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and once again regrets that such a tragic accident could have occurred at one of its plants. In its guidelines, the Group states that the health and safety of its employees is a corporate objective of equal standing with the profitability and quality of its products, and that everything must be done to meet this objective. An accident of this nature must never be repeated.
“Dr. Espenhahn’s conviction in the first instance of ‘second-degree murder’ is incomprehensible for ThyssenKrupp. With regard to the further course of the proceedings we refer you to the statements by the defendants’ lawyers.”
