The preview of the documentary of the Italian language Swiss Radio and Television Broadcasting company RSI entitled Mister Eternit and the factory of death (Il signor eternit e la fabbrica della morte) was scheduled for September the 7th in Zurich at the Hall of the House of Italy (Casa d'Italia) has been cancelled.

The documentary focussed on the tragedy of asbestos and the big Turin trial where the owners of  the large multinational company Eternit,the Belgian Baron Louis de Cartier and the Swiss tycoon Stephan Schmidheiny are on trial accused of wilfully and knowingly having caused permanent damage to the environment.

The reportage is the result of years’ work by journalists of the Italian speaking Swiss Radio and Television. It also contains interviews with some of the sufferers and relatives of the victims, of the roughly 3,000 plaintiffs in the trial on the environmental damage/pollution due to asbestos caused by the four Eternit plants in Italy – Casale Monferrato, Cavagnolo (Province of Turin), Naples and Rubiera (Province of Reggio Emilia).

Furthermore, since PP Raffaele Guariniello is now leading a new investigation with the Office in Turin (known as the Eternit-bis trial) on hundreds of new victims, including a number of Italian migrants who had worked at the Niederurnen factory near Zurich, this important and relevant documentary also tells the sad stories of those migrants who came back to Italy to die of mesothelioma, asbestosis and  lung cancer.
 
The Zurich preview had also been announced by the Comites, an elected body representing 120 associations of Italian migrants registered with the Italian Consulate. The presence of the Associazione delle Vittime di Casale Monferrato e Cavagnolo – AFEVA – was also cancelled and to the best of our knowledge no justification has been offered.

We strongly suspect the interference of both the Zurich agency in charge of  Stephan Schmidheiny’s image, and  the well known Milan Agency, “Bellodi & C.” (the one that also sent spies to the associations of the asbestos victims and trade unions as happened in Casale Monferrato -see the documentation requisitioned by the Turin PP’s Office deposited in Court).

We will not give up, as we have not over the past 30 years, and undertake to do all we can even in a difficult situation like the  one in Switzerland, so that truth may be known and justice obtained.

Associazione Famigliari Vittime Amianto – AFEVA (The Association of the Relatives of the Asbestos Victims)

Watch the reportage by D.Herz, G.Agueci and M.Roselli "La Multinazionale delle Vittime" here (in italian).

(By Asbestos Victims Families Casale, Asbestos in the dock, 16/09/2011)