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Hundreds of relatives of the victims of the Once train crash protest outside a Buenos Aires courthouse. EFE
Buenos Aires, Dec 29 (EFE).- An Argentine court on Tuesday handed down prison sentences of up to nine years for those charged in the 2012 train accident in Buenos Aires that killed 51 people and injured more than 700.
Former federal transportation secretaries Ricardo Jaime, who served from 2003-2008, and Juan Pablo Schiavi, in office from 2008-2012, were sentenced, respectively, to six and eight years in prison.
Claudio Cirigliano, the head of the Trenes de Buenos Aires firm, which had the concession to operate the line on which the crash occurred, was sentenced to nine years behind bars.
In addition, about 10 TBA executives received sentences of between four and eight years in prison, while Mario Cirigliano, Claudio's brother, was acquitted.
The court also sentenced engineer Marcos Cordoba to three-and-a-half years in prison. He was at the controls of the train that crashed into a platform at the Once station, the head station on a crowded rail line connecting the Argentine capital with the western part of Buenos Aires province - .
The "Once tragedy" occurred on Feb. 22, 2012, during the morning rush hour.
The court concluded that TBA was providing service with "serious deficiencies" on the rail line and that the transportation officials had not taken any measures to correct that.