MILAN — Just more than a year after a fire in a Prato, Tuscany, factory killed seven Chinese garment workers, Judge Silvia Isidori on Monday issued a guilty verdict for the three Teresa Moda warehouse managers on trial for assorted charges pertaining to reckless homicide, arson, exploitation of foreign workers and a deliberate lack of mandatory safety features in the factory.
Isidori sentenced Lin You Lan to eight years and eight months in prison, while Lin You Li and Hu Xiaoping received sentences of six years and 10 months and six years and six months, respectively. In addition, the three are to pay an estimated 500,000 euros, or about $590,000 at current exchange, to the city of Prato and four local unions that had filed civil suits in the proceedings.
Related Articles
Gabriele Zanobini, defense lawyer for the accused, told WWD he intended to appeal around the end of May, once he has been able to read the judge’s motivations. If the appeal is granted, a new hearing would likely take place in the second half of 2016, Zanobini said.
You May Also Like
His main criticism of the sentence lies in the judge’s attribution of malice in the lack of safety features in the factory. While Zanobini agreed his clients are guilty of negligence, he said they did not knowingly intend to cause harm.
“For 20 years it’s been well known that in Prato the Chinese are working in these conditions. The responsibility is not only [the defendants’],” Zanobini said, indicating that warehouse owners Giacomo and Massimo Pellegrini, who are facing a separate trial later this month, were also well aware of the Teresa Moda factory conditions, as were city representatives who visited and gave it their stamp of approval.
“Ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking it, but there is no malice here, and the judge attributed a perfect understanding of Italian laws and the desire to break them to my clients,” Zanobini concluded.
The jail sentences are not as lengthy as the prosecution had originally requested: Prato deputy public prosecutor Lorenzo Gestri had recommended a sentence of 10 years and eight months for Lin You Lan, and sentences of eight years for her codefendants.
Still, in a video interview with local newspaper Il Tirreno, Prato’s new chief prosecutor Antonio Sangermano expressed satisfaction with the judge’s sentencing. “The case for the prosecution was fully accepted in the judge’s assessment, so the work done by prosecutor Gestri was recognized,” Sangermano said.
In many ways, the whole Prato textile system has been on trial since the fire. The Corriere della Sera noted that while their involvement in the case was laudable, Tuscan unions have greatly underestimated the importance of addressing “poor working conditions for Chinese laborers in the city.”