The main lawsuit in Europe related asbestos victims takes place in Italy, in the Court of Justice in Turin. A real record for a trial: 2052 victims between 1952 to 2008, between workers and citizens, where Eternit had its factories, are the numbers of this legal action.
The public prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello charges with permanent intenional environmental disaster multinational company top management, Stephan Schmidheiny and the baron Jean Marie Louis de Cartier de Marchienne. From France, Belgium and Switzerland associations and trade unions follow the lawsuit. Outside the Palace of Justice, at the beginning of the trial, there were the miners of Bourgonge with their helmet with the torch on it; the friend from the Swiss CAOVA and a big banner: "Mister Schmidheiny, we wait for you in Switzerland also"; the Italiani with the flag on the shpulders and the sticker "Eternit: justice!" glued on the breast; the ABEVA friend coming from Belgium to testify their solidarity.
The last public hearing, on monday 12th april, Nicola Pondrano, the first witness called by the public prosecutor, described the dangerous situation in Eternit factories.
"The dust was everywhere, that was the first impact you had of the plant but nothing hinted the risk of getting sick of cancer".
Nicola painfully reminded that he used to let his three years old daughter shake down the dust from his hair when he came home every day.
"It was shocking to see all the obituaries on the notice board in the plant", stated Nicola. During the last three decades, he seen his colleagues dying one by one.
"From 1979 to 1986 we denounced more than 600 cases of professional diseases. In 1976 we organized the first strikes. Dust was the main problem in this plant. I’ve got cough and I can’t breathe, said the workers".
Italian judges sentenced guilty, in 90’s, the italian manager of Eternit, but this new trial, tries to link local manager behaviours with the switzerland headquartier decisions. The public prosecutor tries to reveal the responsability of the entire chain of command for these thousands dead.