Ex Italy rail bosses sentenced over 2009 disaster

Lucca: Mauro Moretti, the former head of Italian railways, was Tuesday among a string of executives convicted over a 2009 freight train disaster that killed 32 people.

Moretti, one of Italy's most prominent industrialists and the current boss of defence and engineering giant Leonardo, was sentenced to seven years in prison.

But, like the others convicted, he will not serve any of it before at least the first of two possible appeals have been heard.

That could take years and there is a strong chance the charges could time out before a definitive conviction can be obtained.

Moretti was one of 33 people charged with manslaughter, causing a disaster and other charges in connection with the derailment and explosion of a freight train carrying liquid petroleum gas through the Tuscan coastal town of Viareggio on June 29, 2009.

The force of the blast brought down two small blocks of flats, where many of the victims lived.

Relatives of the casualties briefly applauded after the verdicts were pronounced in court, where empty chairs were adorned by T-shirts printed with images of each of the dead.

Neither Moretti or Michele Mario Elia, another top railways executive who was given a seven years, six months sentence, were in court to hear the verdicts.

Prosecutors had requested 16 years for Moretti and 15 for Elia. Not all charges against them were upheld.

Moretti, 63, has been in charge of Leonardo since May 2014. He was Italian State Railways (FS) boss from 2006-14.

The court proceedings and his conviction hit Leonardo shares which were down by more than three percent in mid-afternoon trading in Milan.