Farmer jailed for 16 years in Italy for abandoning injured Indian worker

ROME - An Italian farmer who left an injured Indian worker to die after a serious work accident was sentenced to 16 years in jail, a court near Rome said on July 8.

In June 2024, Satnam Singh, a 31-year-old undocumented worker, had his arm torn off and legs crushed by a machine.

Instead of taking him to the hospital, his employer, Antonello Lovato, abandoned him and his wife by the side of a road, with the severed limb in a box, according to the unions supporting the victim’s widow.

Singh succumbed to his injuries two days later.

Prosecutors had asked for a 22-year prison sentence for the 39-year-old farmer.

The drama received wide media coverage in Italy and sparked a debate about work conditions for undocumented workers on the country’s farms. The announcement of the verdict was covered live on television.

Thousands of Indian farm workers had demonstrated in Latina, a rural area south of Rome, to demand justice and an end to “slavery” in Italy.

If Singh, who died “of severe haemorrhaging, had been rescued quickly, he would very likely have been saved”, the Latina public prosecutor’s office said, citing the forensic report.

Italian agriculture employs around 240,000 workers, amounting to a quarter of seasonal employees, with inspections still much too rare, according to the latest report by the Placido Rizzotto Observatory, an agro-industry watchdog. AFP