Ex-Pirelli managers to appeal asbestos sentences

The lawyers defending 11 former Pirelli managers convicted over asbestos-related deaths say they will appeal the charges. Yesterday a court in Milan convicted the managers of culpable homicide over the deaths of 24 workers employed at the company’s Bicocca plant in the 1970s and 1980s. The employees died from tumours said to have developed due to exposure from asbestos at the facility.

“We acknowledge with regret today’s sentence in the first instance and will read the judge’s motives as soon as they are deposited,” wrote the defence lawyers in a statement. “On the basis of the scientific evidence to date available and which emerged during the trial debates, we are certain that our clients acted correctly with regard to the charges made against them over 25 years ago, and will appeal.”

Amongst those sentenced by Tribunale di Milano judge Raffaele Martorelli were Ludovico Grandi, president of Pirelli’s global tyre operations in the 1980s (who received a sentence of four years and eight months imprisonment), and ex-chief executive Gianfranco Bellingeri (sentenced to three years and six months imprisonment). The longest sentence was reserved for Luciano Isola, a Pirelli Board member between 1980 and 1986, who was given seven years and eight months. The 11 former managers and Pirelli Tyre SpA were also sentenced to pay plaintiffs a provisional sum of €520,000, and the amount to be paid in further damages will be determined at a separate civil trial.