Pizzo Cengalo landslide: all five defendants acquitted

The Maloja regional court has acquitted the five defendants tried over the Pizzo Cengalo landslide, which killed eight people in Val Bondasca, in the municipality of Bregaglia, canton Graubünden, in 2017. The verdict was handed down today in Pontresina.

Among the defendants was Anna Giacometti, mayor of Bregaglia at the time and now a National Councillor for the FDP. Also on trial were an external geologist, a municipal employee and two officials from the cantonal Office for Forests and Natural Hazards. They were charged with multiple counts of negligent homicide.

According to the prosecution, the landslide was to some extent foreseeable and the authorities had failed to act accordingly, for instance by closing hiking trails in the danger zone.

No warning signs

The court found no evidence, in the weeks before the collapse, of signs pointing to an event of that magnitude. The defendants therefore had not negligently failed to take safety measures, such as closing the trails.

Regarding Giacometti's position, the court noted that the former mayor is not a geologist and had to rely on experts' assessments. According to the judge, she did not have the specialist knowledge needed to assess the danger. The court also questioned whether the indictment had been sufficient.

The defence had argued that the mountain's landslide activity had not increased significantly in the days before the disaster: the increase in rockfalls was recorded only in the fifteen minutes before the landslide. According to the defence, hikers in Val Bondasca were in any case informed of the dangers through signs placed at the entrance to the valley and at the Sciora and Sasc Furä huts.

A contested point in the trial concerned the report by Vaud geologist Thierry Oppikofer, on which the prosecution's case rested. During questioning earlier this year, the expert reportedly qualified some of his conclusions, moving closer to other assessments favourable to the defendants.

Urban Maissen, head of the Graubünden Office for Forests and Natural Hazards, said he was relieved that a first-instance verdict had finally been reached and that the defendants had been acquitted. Maissen also expressed sympathy for those who lost loved ones in the tragedy.

The landslide of 23 August 2017, a collapse of 3.1 million cubic metres of rock from Pizzo Cengalo, swept away eight hikers in Val Bondasca. The debris reached the valley floor and the villages of Bondo, Spino, Sottoponte and Promontogno. About thirty buildings were destroyed, and around 150 people had to leave the area for several weeks. Damage exceeded 50 million francs.