Posted on June 3, 2013
ADAO is thrilled to report that the attempt to appeal the 2012 conviction of Stephan Schmidheiny and Baron Jean-Louis de Cartier de Marchienne has failed! Today, the Appeal Court in Turin, Italy upheld the verdict that Schmidheiny and de Cartier are to be held responsible for their role in the thousands of asbestos-related deaths of employees of Eternit, a multinational asbestos cement company owned by the two men. In 2012, Schmidheiny and de Cartier were each sentenced to 16 years in jail. Baron de Cartier’s case was dismissed following his death last month at the age of 91. Today, the court increased Schmidheiny’s prison sentence to 18 years. The Court also increased the amount that Schmidheiny is ordered to pay in damages.
Although the Eternit appeal trial took place in Turin, the implications of the verdict are felt far beyond Italy. Representatives of Belgium, France, and Switzerland were present in the courtroom today, a reminder that thousands of innocent individuals in countries outside of Italy have also lost their lives as a direct result of Eternit’s flagrant disregard for occupational health. We can only hope that today’s verdict, which reaffirms a century’s worth of scientific evidence that asbestos exposure is lethal, will have a dramatic impact on countries like Russia and Brazil that continue to mine asbestos.
ADAO congratulates the Association of Asbestos Victims Families (AFeVA), which has worked tirelessly to unite asbestos victims in an effort to hold Eternit accountable for human rights violations. We join with the global community in celebrating the just verdict of the Eternit Appeal Trial, and we wholeheartedly support the Eternit victims.
In unity,
Linda