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Prosecutors in Italy describe the trial that just opened in the Palace of Justice in Turin as a world trial on asbestos-related disease.

Two former top shareholders of a Swiss building materials company Eternit face criminal charges and a class-action civil lawsuit for alleged negligence in the deaths of more than 2,000 people of asbestos-related disease, according to Agence France-Presse, the French news service.

Prosecutors contend that Eternit former owner, Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny, and former top executive officer Jean Louis de Cartier bear ultimate responsibility for lapses in work safety at four asbestos-cement plants in Italiy that led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people and caused several hundred more illnesses

Schmidheiny and De Cartier are standing trial in absentia in criminal court. Under Italian law, a civil lawsuit also may be joined to the criminal proceeding. More than 700 people have joined the class-action lawsuit.

Lawyers for the two defendants say their clients have no direct responsibility.

The victims— who include former employees as well as residents of four Italian cities where the company had factories—allege that many illnesses and deaths were caused by exposure to asbestos in Eternit’s building products such as insulation. The victims are expected to seek several hundred million euros in compensation.

Prosecutors say it is the biggest trial ever held on the effects of exposure to blue asbestos or crocidolite, a fibrous mineral banned in Italy in 1992 over health concerns. Italian authorities have opened three additional courtrooms in addition to main courtroom for the overflow crowd folowing the trial.

“It’s a world first ,” Jean-Paul Teissonniere, a French lawyer representing the plaintiffs told AFP. “This trial will determine whether the judicial system is capable of handling such a complex case.”

After more than five years of investigation, prosecutors claim that former workers and residents of towns near four of Eternit’s factories had unusally high rates of cancer caused by asbestos dust in the air and Eternit products used in paving. The towns where the factories were located are Casale Monferrato, Cavagnolo, Bagnoli and Rubiera.

Breathing asbestos is associated with lung cancer and mesothelioma, a fatal cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen.

A number of local government authorities also are suing for damages including all four municipal councils where the factories were located, as well as the Turin provincial government and the Piedmont regional authority.

The defendants face three to 12 years in prison if convicted.

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