Two Italian prosecutors were found guilty of hiding papers in the Eni-Shell Nigeria trial

Two prosecutors from Milan were given eight months in prison on Tuesday for not filing papers that would have helped the energy company Eni’s case in an international corruption case.

On March 20, 2021, a court in Milan found Eni (ENI.MI), Shell (SHEL.L), and all the other defendants not guilty of what became known as the biggest corruption case in the oil business. The case was about the $1.3 billion purchase of a Nigerian oilfield ten years earlier.

There was a court in the northern city of Brescia that said Fabio De Pasquale and Sergio Spadaro, two prosecutors from Milan, had to file papers that could have helped the defense team in that trial.

The court in Brescia is in charge of the judges and lawyers in Milan, which is close by.

In the Eni Shell trial, all the defendants were found not guilty by a court in Milan. The court criticized the prosecutors’ work, saying that they should have included a video shot by a former Eni external lawyer that was important to the case.

The prosecutors asked for an eight-month sentence, which was given by the Brescia court. They said that De Pasquale and Spadaro had hidden things that helped the suspects in the Eni-Shell trial, which was against their rights.

The men’s lawyer asked the court for a full acquittal, saying that there was no rule that said prosecutors had to file papers right away during a trial. The lawyer didn’t have anything to say right away about the finding.

It was also asked that the judges be found not guilty by the government and the interior ministry, which could be sued for damages.