ILVA's toxic emissions lawsuit kicks off in Italy

An Italian court on Tuesday began considering the case of the ILVA smelter, whose management, along with city officials and politicians, is accused of at least 400 deaths due to toxic waste poisoning.

The mega-process brought together about 100 lawyers, 47 defendants and more than a thousand members of the public of the city of Taranto, where the largest steel complex in Italy smokes with poisonous gases.

However, the first hearing lasted less than a minute and on the basis that one of the defendants was not properly notified of the timing of the hearing, it was postponed to December 1 of this year.

Recall that the investigation into the environmental pollution in Taranto lasts about three years and began in 2012 after local activists obtained an expert examination, which convincingly proved that the emissions from the metallurgical plant increased the death rate in the region by 15 percent.

From that moment on, nightmare days began for the members of the Riva family, which is the owner of the plant. The father of the family was placed under house arrest, where he died in captivity last year.

ILVA, which provides employment for about 20,000 people, was practically stopped and then transferred to the management of the state administrator. Today it employs less than 8,000 people.

Italian Prime Minister Renzi promised to bring ILVA to environmental standards and sell it to a wealthy investor, but as usual politicians exaggerated their capabilities a little.

After the mess that the Italian authorities created at the plant, most of the locals sided with the Riva family and insist on continuing the work of the enterprise, which received the status of one of the largest polluting industrial sites in Europe.