Three to stand trial for Seville LD deaths

SPAIN: Prosecutors are demanding four years in prison for those accused of being responsible for an outbreak of legionnaires’ disease that killed four people in Seville in 2009.

According to Europa Press, the accused are to stand trial for the outbreak at the Macarena Hotel in September 2009 which, in addition to the deaths, also affected 15 others. Almost all of the victims were hotel guests or lived in the local neighbourhood.

The defendants include the hotel manager at the time, the person responsible for the Sol Melia hotel chain in the south west and the managing director of Sick Building Syndrome Legionella Lab SL, a Seville-based water treatment company.

The indictment includes four counts of manslaughter by gross negligence and 15 offences of injury and serious negligence.

The prosecution case describes “serious irregularities that show a complete lack of care and maintenance on the cooling towers of the hotel” and maintains that the hotel maintenance staff had no training in the control of legionella.