Justice Delayed is Justice Denied
The well-known phrase above is attributed to the 19th century British statesman and Prime Minister William Gladstone. These words have been ringing in my ears since February 11, 2026 when I heard the latest news in the long-running battle for justice by Italian asbestos victims.1 Since the 1980s, local people, trade unionists and municipal officials have been waging a war of attrition against the country’s asbestos sector which had, so they claimed, caused untold damage to human beings and the environment.
With so much death and contamination there was plenty of blame to go around but the figurehead around which this scandal coalesced was a Swiss asbestos billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny. The industrialist, who has never appeared in person at any of the Italian trials against him, has said that the legal actions were tantamount to “state torture” by a “failed state.” Being the target of this sustained legal vendetta had, he said, injured his mental health and forced him to find solace in meditation to deal with “his hatred of Italians.” In 2020, he told journalists that he had “no intention of seeing an Italian prison from the inside.”2
Schmidheiny, the former owner and director of the Swiss Eternit asbestos conglomerate and the main shareholder of the now defunct cement production company Eternit Italia, was charged in various Italian jurisdictions with aggravated manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, voluntary murder (or “homicide”), failing to comply with safety measures and causing a permanent environmental disaster.
 These placards were on display outside the Turin Criminal Court on February 13, 2012. The English translation of the caption under the images of Stephan Schmidheiny was: “Mr Stephan Schmidheiny you belong in jail.” Picture from the IBAS archive. |
Schmidheiny was convicted by lower courts and appeal courts3 but succeeded in challenges at Italy’s Supreme Court (Court of Cassation) on three separate occasions:
- in November 2014, an 18-year prison sentence (2013) for causing “a permanent intentional environmental disaster” was vacated due to the expiration of the statute of limitations;4
- in March 2025, a prison sentence for the death of a Turin factory worker was ruled to be statute-barred; 5
- in February 2026, a 2025 judgment sentencing Schmidheiny to nine and a half years in jail for having caused 91 asbestos deaths was sent back to the Turin Court of Appeal with an order to have the 600+ page verdict translated into German, the defendant’s mother tongue.
 Picture taken in Rome, Italy on February 11, 2026. Nicola Pondrano 7th from the left. Photograph courtesy of AFeVA. |
The latest reversal for victims and their families while not a surprise was devastating nevertheless. Having witnessed the February 11, 2026 developments in Rome firsthand, Nicola Pondrano, former Eternit worker and Co-founder of the Association of Relatives of Asbestos Victims (Associazione Familiari Vittime Amianto/AFeVA) said:
“When proceedings against Schmidheiny for voluntary manslaughter (intentional homicide) began at the Court of Assizes of Novara in September 2021, he was facing charges for 392 deaths. In the verdict handed down on June 7, 2023, he was convicted of 147 deaths. The case adjudicated by the Supreme Court this month, and which it sent back to Turin for translation, had found the defendant guilty in 91 cases. By the time the translation of documents ordered by the Supreme Court has been completed, processed and agreed, the number of deaths will, once again, have decreased. The reason for the dwindling number of cases is mostly due to the 15-year window after death during which a manslaughter claim can be brought. With each judicial delay, cases fall by the wayside as they become statute barred. Schmidheiny’s lawyers know that time is on their side and exploit every loophole to take full advantage. Meanwhile hundreds of people in Casale Monferrato and elsewhere in Italy continue to die from diseases caused by the factories owned by Schmidheiny. The sense of injustice and the bitterness felt by the whole community is immense.” 6
 Picture taken in Rome, Italy on February 11, 2026. Photograph courtesy of AFeVA. |
February 24, 2026
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1 Mossano, S. ETERNIT BIS – Schmidheiny ottiene dalla Cassazione che la sentenza sia tradotta anche in Tedesco [ETERNIT BIS – Schmidheiny obtains Supreme Court ruling that verdict must be translated into German]. February 12, 2026.
https://www.silmos.it/eternit-bis-schmidheiny-ottiene-dalla-cassazione-che-la-sentenza-sia-tradotta-anche-in-tedesco/
Rossa, M. Eternit-bis: la sentenza non era stata tradotta in tedesco, la Cassazione rimanda tutto a Torino
[Eternit-bis: The ruling hadn't been translated into German, the Supreme Court sends the matter back to Turin].
February 11, 2026.
https://www.ilmonferrato.it/articolo/t5qQzJ178kyp0oVX6l3x1Q/eternit-bis-la-sentenza-non-era-stata-tradotta-in-tedesco-la-cassazione-rimanda-tutto-a-torino
Oberstes Gericht in Italien hebt Eternit-Urteil auf [Supreme Court in Italy overturns Eternit ruling]. February 12, 2026.
https://www.srf.ch/news/international/italienische-eternit-fabrik-oberstes-gericht-in-italien-hebt-schmidheiny-urteil-auf
2 Pegoraro, A. Mr Eternit ora insulta l'Italia: "Un Paese fallito, io vi odio" [Mr Eternit now insults Italy: “A failed country, I hate you”]. Jan 24, 2020.http://www.ilgiornale.it/news/cronache/processo-eternit-bis-schmidheiny-provo-odio-italiani-1816184.html
3 IBAS. Italy Asbestos Profile. Accessed February 26, 2026.
https://ibasecretariat.org/prof_italy.php
Kazan-Allen, L. Update from Novara Asbestos Trial. September 16, 2021.
https://www.ibasecretariat.org/lka-update-from-novara-asbestos-trial.php
Kazan-Allen, L. Landmark Jail Sentence for Swiss Asbestos Magnate. June 15, 2023.
https://www.ibasecretariat.org/lka-landmark-jail-sentence-for-swiss-asbestos-magnate.php
4 IndustriALL. Eternit owners’ crime judged expired and non-prosecutable in Italy. November 27, 2014.
https://www.industriall-union.org/eternit-owners-crime-judged-expired-and-non-prosecutable-in-italy
Eternit lawsuit (re asbestos exposure in Italy). Accessed February 21, 2026.
https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/lawsuit-against-eternit-re-asbestos-exposure-in-italy/
5 High court in Italy annuls verdict against Schmidheiny. March 22, 2025.
https://www.bluewin.ch/en/news/high-court-in-italy-annuls-judgment-against-schmidheiny-2617457.html
6 Email from Nicola Pondrano received February 16, 2026.
