Thirty of 57 defendants were convicted in Genoa over the 2018 Morandi bridge collapse that killed 43 people, with sentences ranging from 1 year 11 months to 12 years after a four-year trial.
Giovanni Castellucci, former Autostrade per l’Italia CEO, received the longest term at 12 years; ex-maintenance chief Michele Donferri Mitelli got 11 years, while others were acquitted or saw lesser charges lapse.
Prosecutors said years of maintenance neglect caused a 200-meter section of the bridge to fail during a rainstorm, while defendants argued the disaster stemmed from a construction defect.
Victims’ families packed the courtroom and wept as verdicts were read, saying the ruling recognized that the collapse was not chance but the result of serious maintenance failures.
Autostrade and a subsidiary had already paid about 30 million euros in penalties under a corporate-liability deal, and the company’s current CEO issued a public apology as a replacement bridge opened in 2020.