Italian court quashes Swiss industrialists' asbestos jail sentence

A nine-year Italian prison sentence handed out to Swiss industrialist Stephan Schmidheiney, relating to asbestos deaths, has been quashed because the 2025 verdict was not translated into German. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The former executive at Swiss company Eternit was handed a nine years and six months jail term by the Turin Court of Appeal on April 17, 2025. But the Italian Supreme Court has annulled the judgement on the grounds that Schmidheiney was denied fair rights of defence. + Curtain falls on Schmidheiny era Under Italian procedural law, judgments must be conveyed in a language that defendants can understand. The Piedmontese judges will have to translate the ruling into a language known to the businessman, in this case German, and notify it to the accused and his defence, the Italian news agency ansa reported on Wednesday. + Asbestos: scientific breakthroughs and political debates The parties will then have another opportunity to appeal ...