As other times before (check here), Stephan Schmidheiny is trying to impoverish the plaintiff by offering money. It is now a strategic moment at the Eternit trial where he plays the role of the defendant (in absentia). On June 14th, infact, the legal proceedings will open the harangue session with the last statements by the parties. This phase will take few months, ending with the sentence around the late fall 2011.

Now he succeded in his attempt of get rid of the charge by excluding from the plaintiff the town of Cavagnolo, the municipality where there was the smallest of businesses controlled by Eternit in Italy.

The city council led by Mayor Franco Sampò accepted the € 2.2 million offered by the Swiss tycoon, in return for his exit from the trial. The transaction just completed, mediated by the Turin lawyer Sergio Bonetto took place secretly, far from the sight of the other pliantiff's member. The Mayor of Casale Monferrato assured that any possible offer of this nature will be firmly rejected.

Schmidheiny tags the compensation as a a philanthropic act, not an admission of guilt. The legal strategy of Schmidheiny is still the same from the beginning of the proceeding:

“The company invested 70 billion lire (SFr70 million) in safety between 1976 and 1986 and earned nothing. That can be seen clearly in the accounts,” lawyer Di Amato maintains. That means there is no question of there having been any speculation on the backs of the workers, he said.

Peter Schürmann, Schmidheiny’s spokesman in Switzerland, said he was never really an owner of the Italian Eternit works, nor did he have any operational role there.
“However incomprehensible this trial is from Mr Schmidheiny’s point of view, there is at least one good thing about it: it will clarify the responsibilities which form the basis for the charges being laid against him.”

Futur scriptum non est, let's wait for the sentence.

(By Asbestos Victims Families Casale, Asbestos in the dock, 07/06/2011)