Italy's supreme Court of Cassation on Friday upheld prison sentences against six company executives and managers over the deaths of seven workers in a 2007 fire at a plant belonging to German steel giant ThyssenKrupp. The former CEO of the Italian division of ThyssenKrupp, Harald Espenhahn, must serve nine years eight months. The court also upheld sentences of seven years six months against Daniele Moroni, seven years two months against Raffaele Salerno, of six years eight months against Cosimo Cafueri, and of six months three years against managers Marco Pucci and Gerald Priegnitz.
Prosecutor Paola Filippi earlier asked the court to scrap the convictions and return the case to the appeals level for a third trial, prompting relatives of the victims to burst into tears, shout "sellouts" at the judges, and leave the courtroom in protest.
An appeals court in May last year reduced the sentences handed down to senior ThyssenKrupp executives over the seven deaths, sparking an outcry from victims' families present at the hearing.
Espenhahn saw his sentence reduced from 10 to nine years eight months. In 2013, the ex CEO saw his first-degree murder sentence reduced to 10 years from 16 and a half years on appeal, prompting outraged families of the victims to stage a sit-in.
His initial conviction marked one of the first times that a senior executive was convicted of murder at a workplace death trial in Italy.
The Court of Cassation in 2014 had ordered a new appeals trial to "recalculate" - but not increase - the sentences.
Four other ThyssenKrupp managers who were convicted of manslaughter also saw their sentences reduced on appeal, while a fifth manager saw his sentence increased.
However, in April 2015 Italy's highest court threw out the new verdicts and ordered a new appeals trial, leading to speculation that the punishments would be increased.
This was not the case, leading families of victims to protest.
The years-long trial stems from an investigation into emergency training and fire safety equipment at the steelworks.
One worker died immediately in the flames, which broke out at the plant's thermal treatment department during the night shift on December 6, 2007. The other six died of severe burns over the following days and weeks.
Survivors at the time told how the fire swept through the steelworks.
"There was a small fire where some oil was burning. We thought we could put it out and we got out the fire extinguishers, but the flames spread and got bigger, and then there were some explosions," said one.
"I tried to help (the men in the flames), I was pulling burnt hair off them, pieces of clothes".
Another survivor claimed that three of the five fire extinguishers were empty or broken.
The German industrial conglomerate denied it failed to keep adequate fire-fighting systems in place at the plant. It reached a settlement with the victims' families, paying them a reported total compensation of 12.97 million euros in June 2008.
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