Top court asked to uphold lower sentences for ThyssenKrupp

CEO initially convicted of homicide in seven deaths in plant

(ANSA) - Rome, April 24 - Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation was asked Friday to uphold the reduced sentences for senior officials with steelmaker ThyssenKrupp who were convicted in the deaths of seven works at a plant fire in 2007. Prosecutors asked the Cassation Court to uphold earlier decisions by an appeal court reducing the original sentences.

In early 2013, an appeal court had reduced the first-degree homicide sentence for Harald Espenhahn, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Italian division of Germany's ThyssenKrupp steelmaker. It reduced Espenhahn's sentence to 10 years from 16 and a half years, prompting outraged families of the victims to stage a sit-in. The initial sentences stemmed from a fatal fire in December 2007 at ThyssenKrupp steelworks, marking one of the first times at a workplace death trial in Italy that a senior official was convicted of homicide.

Sentences were also reduced last year for four other ThyssenKrupp managers who were convicted of manslaughter, and initially received jail sentences ranging from 10 years in to prison to 13 and a half years. A fifth employee saw his sentence increased.