The former director of Italy’s motorway operator has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa in August 2018.

Prosecutors had asked for a much longer prison sentence for the former head of Autostrade per l’Italia, Giovanni Castellucci.

Forty-three people died when the highway bridge through the city collapsed during a storm in the middle of the Christmas season, sending cars and trucks tumbling to the ground.

Castellucci, already serving a six-year prison sentence for a 2013 road disaster, was one of 57 defendants in the trial in Genoa. Another senior highway official, Michele Donferri Mitelli, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Emmanuel Diaz, whose brother Henry died in the bridge collapse, told Italian television he was “very satisfied” with the verdict, while Egle Possetti, whose sister and family were killed, said he thought the 12-year term given to Castellucci was “acceptable.”

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