Court in Genoa sentences former highway chief to twelve years in prison after bridge collapse

The cable-stayed bridge, opened in 1967, was named after its designer Riccardo Morandi and was part of an important connecting road between France and Italy. According to experts, the bridge had suffered serious damage due to insufficient maintenance. Around 700 residents had to leave their apartments, about 600 permanently lost their homes, and several houses under bridge piers at acute risk of collapse were demolished. The remains of the bridge were later removed through a controlled demolition.

After four years of proceedings and 283 hearing days, the court in Genoa announced the verdicts on Thursday in less than 20 minutes. The prosecution had originally requested 18 years in prison for Castellucci and a total of more than 400 years in prison for all defendants. The judges ultimately imposed almost 200 years of prison sentences and acquitted 25 of the 57 defendants.

Trial with 57 Defendants

Castellucci, who was already serving a prison sentence from an earlier proceeding at the time of the verdict, was not present in the courtroom according to the court. He had previously been sentenced to six years in prison for a bus accident on an ASPI highway in southern Italy in 2013, in which a bus broke through a guardrail and 40 people died. One year after the bridge disaster, he resigned as head of Autostrade per l'Italia in exchange for a severance payment of 13 million euros.

The prosecution had accused Castellucci of having known about the defects in the pier since 2009 and of having delayed necessary maintenance work. The company had not invested sufficiently in maintenance for reasons of profit. The defense argued, on the other hand, that it had been a concealed structural defect that had not been detectable. Castellucci himself stated: „Ich fühle mich verantwortlich, aber nicht schuldig".

Among those convicted were also the then ASPI manager number three, who received eleven years in prison, as well as two other former executives who each received five and a half years. The charges included negligent homicide, document forgery, and failure to maintain. It is expected that the convicted will appeal, as the verdict is not yet final.

During the trial, the spokesperson for the relatives, Egle Possetti, who appeared in the proceedings as a co-plaintiff and lost her sister, her brother-in-law, and their two children in the collapse, said that during the course of the trial „keine einzige Person gesagt: 'Ich trage einen Teil der Verantwortlich'. Das war hart".

Reactions of the Relatives

Possetti described the verdict as „nachvollziehbar". One day before the start of the trial, Autostrade per l'Italia had published an apology letter. The current ASPI chief Arrigo Giana wrote shortly before the end of the trial in a letter published in Corriere della Sera: „Lasst uns das Schweigen brechen".

Giuseppe Rodinò, who had lived under the bridge for 40 years and was at home at the time of the collapse when a pier gave way and tore a large section of the roadway with it, expressed mixed feelings. He called the verdict positive on the one hand, because there was finally a decision, but at the same time criticized the apology as too late: „Den hätten sie gleich schreiben müssen. So ist es ein bisschen wie vor ein paar Jahren, als die USA sich bei den Ureinwohnern entschuldigt haben, für das, was sie ihnen damals angetan haben." Rodinò said he had followed the trial primarily with two feelings: „Trauer und Wut".

Political Reactions and Outlook

Michele Matti Altadonna, whose brother died in the bridge collapse, expressed satisfaction with the verdict and told the AFP news agency: „Heute können wir sagen, dass das diejenigen sind, die schuld am Tod unserer Angehörigen sind". Italy's Deputy Transport Minister Edoardo Rixi spoke of a „wichtigen Schritt auf dem Weg zu Wahrheit und Gerechtigkeit". Transport Minister Matteo Salvini of the right-wing Lega party, who is also Deputy Prime Minister under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, said: „Eine Katastrophe dieser Art darf nicht unbestraft bleiben".

The trial also shed light on the dilapidated state of Italy's transport infrastructure and the questionable role of Autostrade per l'Italia. Among the 57 defendants were, in addition to employees of the highway company, engineers responsible for safety, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Transport. The port city of Genoa, with just under 600,000 inhabitants, was practically split in two for about two long years due to the collapse and the subsequent demolition work. Since August 2020, a new bridge by the Genoese star architect Renzo Piano has stood in the same place, featuring 43 light masts — one for each fatality. It is expected that the proceedings will continue in higher courts.