Giovanni Castellucci, former CEO of Italy's motorway operator, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the 2018 collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa that killed 43 people. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
In a hushed courtroom in Genoa, northwestern Italy, on Thursday, the judge read out the verdicts. Castellucci, a former boss of Autostrade per l'Italia, received the highest sentence of 12 years. He was tried alongside 56 others over the collapse of the Morandi Bridge, in which a 50-metre section fell away, sending vehicles plunging onto warehouses and a riverbed during a summer storm. It was one of the worst tragedies in modern Italian history.
Castellucci was convicted of complicity in multiple counts of manslaughter through negligence. His lawyers said they would appeal, stating that as CEO their client had relied on Italy's leading engineers. They called the verdict "a defeat for the truth".
The courtroom was packed with about 400 relatives of the victims, lawyers, journalists and members of the public. Some relatives embraced and wept. Others said they needed time to come to terms with the court's decision. Egle Possetti, a spokesperson for the victims, who lost her sister, brother-in-law and her sister's two children in the tragedy, told Reuters: "We need to better understand the ruling; there are a large number of defendants involved."
All defendants had denied wrongdoing. In total, 32 people were convicted and handed sentences ranging from one year and 11 months to 12 years. Others were either found not guilty, or lesser charges had expired under the statute of limitations.
The trial became both a search for accountability over one of Italy's worst infrastructure disasters and a test of the country's notoriously slow justice system. The collapse of the 51-year-old bridge stunned Italy and exposed deep concerns over the safety of the country's ageing infrastructure.
Prosecutors argued that years of neglected maintenance, ignored warning signs and repeated delays to safety works contributed to the collapse, alleging that essential repairs were postponed while the motorway operator continued to generate and distribute profits.
The defence rejected those claims, arguing that the disaster was caused by a fatal flaw in the bridge's original design, specifically the failure of stay cable No 9, and that no maintenance programme could have prevented the collapse.
In a statement issued after the verdicts, Castellucci's lawyers said: "The suffering caused by the Genoa tragedy is immense and deserves respect. But the gravity of the event requires justice to remain based on individual responsibility, not the search for a scapegoat."
The disaster also triggered a political battle over control of Italy's motorway network, ending with the Benetton family relinquishing its controlling stake in Autostrade per l'Italia. The remains of the Morandi Bridge were demolished and replaced by the Genoa San Giorgio Bridge, designed by the Genoa-born architect Renzo Piano, who donated the project to his home town. The new bridge, which opened in August 2020, features sail-shaped elements inspired by the city's maritime heritage.