Italian officials handed jail terms for Genoa bridge disaster that killed 43

The ex-head of Italy’s motorway operator Giovanni Castellucci was handed a 12-year term over the 2018 bridge collapse.

15 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GooglePaul KirbyEurope digital editor

AFP via Getty Images Judge Paolo Lepri (C) read the verdict in the Courthouse about the case of the Morandi Bridge collapse nearly eight years agoAFP via Getty Images
The verdict was read out in a Genoa court by Judge Paolo Lepri (C)

The former head of Italy’s motorway operator has been given a 12-year prison sentence over the collapse of Genoa’s Morandi bridge in August 2018.

Prosecutors had asked for a far longer jail term for ex-Autostrade per l’Italia chief Giovanni Castellucci.

Forty-three people died when the motorway bridge running through the city came down in a rain storm at the height of the holiday season, sending cars and lorries plummeting to the ground.

Castellucci, who is already serving a six-year jail term for a 2013 road disaster, was one of 57 defendants on trial in Genoa. Another top motorway official, Michele Donferri Mitelli, has been given 11 years in jail.

Emmanuel Diaz, whose brother Henry died in the bridge collapse told Italian TV he was “very satisfied” with the verdict, while Egle Possetti, whose sister and her family were all killed, said she thought the 12-year term handed to Castellucci was “acceptable”.

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