Ex-CEO of Italian motorway sentenced to 12 years for Genoa bridge collapse

In all, 32 defendants convicted and 25 acquitted or cleared by statute ‌of limitations over 2018 Morandi bridge disaster.A court has sentenced the former CEO of Italy’s main highway operator ⁠to 12 years in prison over the collapse of the Morandi road bridge in the port city of Genoa.Judges delivered their verdict on Thursday in Genoa in the first trial over the collapse of the bridge, which killed 43 people when it fell apart on August 14, 2018. It is considered one of the country’s worst infrastructure disasters.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Four Gaza aid flotilla activists released from Libya detentionlist 2 of 4Italy recovers 10 bodies as boat with nearly 60 on board capsizes off Maltalist 3 of 4Thousands protest plan to build world’s longest bridge from Sicily to Italylist 4 of 4Italy greenlights plan to build world’s longest suspension bridge to Sicilyend of listAtlantia CEO Giovanni Castellucci ⁠was found guilty of vehicular homicide and negligence related to the Morandi bridge’s collapse.The bridge was operated by Atlantia’s motorway unit, Autostrade per l’Italia, which has come under severe scrutiny in this affair.Castellucci is already in prison, serving a six-year sentence over another fatal incident in 2013 on a viaduct in southern Italy, and was not in court to hear the verdict.Also convicted on Thursday were Autostrade’s former head of maintenance, Michele Donferri Mitelli, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison and the former CEO of the SPEA engineering company, Antonino Galata, who received five years and six months.In all, 32 people were convicted and handed sentences ranging from one year and 11 months to 12 years. Others were either found not guilty, or lesser charges had expired under the statute of limitations.Relatives of the victims, meanwhile, packed the court to hear the outcome of a case that has become a symbol of Italy’s decaying infrastructure and slow justice system. The verdict came after four years of trial hearings for 57 defendants, including company executives, engineers and transport ministry officials, on charges of manslaughter, endangering transport safety and falsifying official documents.Giovanni Paolo Accini, Lawyer of former CEO of Atlantia Giovanni Castellucci, speaks with media in the Courthouse after the verdict in the case of the Morandi bridge collapse nearly eight years ago that killed 43 people in one of the country’s worst infrastructure disasters, in Genoa on July 16, 2026 [AFP]The 1,182-metre (1,293-yard) bridge, which had been dubbed Italy’s “Brooklyn Bridge”, was designed by the architect Riccardo Morandi and inaugurated in 1967.