Bondo rockslide trial ends with acquittal of all five defendants

All five defendants in the Bondo rockslide trial have been acquitted, SRF reported. They had faced charges of multiple counts of negligent homicide over the deaths of eight people on hiking trails.

The Maloja Regional Court examined whether authorities had wrongly assessed the danger before the rockslide and breached their duty of care by failing to close the trails near Piz Cengalo. Prosecutors had sought suspended monetary penalties.

The defendants included Anna Giacometti, who was Bondo’s mayor at the time and is now a member of the Swiss National Council, two employees of the cantonal Office for Forests and Natural Hazards, an employee of the municipality of Bregaglia and an external geologist.

On August 23, 2017, about three million cubic metres of rock broke away from Piz Cengalo. A debris flow moved through the Val Bondasca towards Bondo. The village was evacuated in time, but the rock mass buried eight people on a hiking trail.

The indictment said numerous warning signs had preceded the disaster. Prosecutors did not seek harsher penalties partly because none of the defendants had a criminal record.

Second Bondo trial

The case had already been investigated in 2019, but prosecutors closed the investigation after concluding that the rockslide could not have been predicted. Their assessment relied on a report by the responsible cantonal office, where two potential defendants worked.

Relatives of the eight victims succeeded in having the case reconsidered by the Federal Supreme Court in 2021. The current indictment was based on an external assessment by an independent geologist.