Satnam Singh employer jailed for 16 years in Italy

An Italian court near Rome sentenced farmer Antonello Lovato to 16 years in prison on July 8 over the abandonment of Satnam Singh, an injured Indian farm worker who died after a work accident.

Singh, a 31-year-old undocumented worker, had his arm torn off and his legs crushed by a machine in June 2024. Unions supporting Singh's widow said Lovato left Singh and his wife by a road instead of taking him to hospital, with the severed limb in a box. Singh died two days later.

Prosecutors had sought a 22-year sentence for Lovato, 39. The Latina public prosecutor's office, citing a forensic report, said Singh would very likely have been saved if he had been rescued quickly after severe haemorrhaging.

The case sparked debate in Italy over conditions for undocumented farm workers. Thousands of Indian farm workers demonstrated in Latina, south of Rome, to demand justice and an end to what they called slavery in Italy.

The Placido Rizzotto Observatory, an agro-industry watchdog, says Italian agriculture employs about 240,000 workers, around a quarter of seasonal employees, and that inspections remain too rare.