The defendant's lawyers address their last call for a nullification of the charge and they raise a question about the territorial legitimacy of the Tribunal of Torino. The Public Prosecutor reacts quickly and clearly. Today (08/03) is going on stage the last session on preliminary matters, with its tricky attempts by the defendant's lawyers to call the criminal trial into question.

Lawyers Zaccone, Fornari, Manzi and Alleva (defence) argue that the right place of jurisdiction for the crime of permanent willing environmental disaster is Genova. There is where the company headquarter in Italy was, the place where the Eternit managerial decision has been taken. Genova it is also the site where the bankruptcy trial helded, after the end of the Eternit production in Italy in 1986.

They also object to the formulation of the indictment act: the charge is inaccurate and unclear about liability and date of the accounted charge, according to them. Finally, the defendant's lawyers address their speeches against the lack of translation of many documents, circumstance that undermine the right to defence.

The reaction of the Public Prosecutor's Office hasn't last in coming: Gianfranco Colace and Sara Panelli rebut asserting the legitimacy of the Tribunal of Torino (the majority of the victims had exposed and get sick within the jurisdiction of this tribunal, after working and living in the cities of Casale Monferrato and Cavagolo).

The Prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello rebut the accusation according to wich he have filed an unclear indictment. Guariniello remind that the indictment duty stay only in recognize the crime and it is hypothetical, not probationary.

Last, the barrister Petrini, talking in the name of all the lawyers of the plaintiff, argue that the only possible criterion to state the territorial jurisdiction could be the place where the effects of the crime appeared: this is the place where the offence has been committed. "Who care if the decision has been taken on a flight to Buenos Aires or into an office in Genova" he says.

The judge save 2 weeks before coming back with a decision about the preliminary matters. At 12.10 he adjourned the 7th hearing for March 22th, 2010.

(By Asbestos Victims Families Casale, Asbestos in the dock, 08/03/2010)