Italy's Apex court suspends Finmeccanica's former head Giuseppe Orsi

Italy's highest court has suspended a sentence handed earlier this year to the former boss of aerospace and defence group Finmeccanica, Giuseppe Orsi, for false accounting and corruption in connection with the sale of 12 luxury helicopters to India. 

The decision yesterday came after both the defence and the prosecution had requested a suspension, on grounds that the Milan appeals court's sentence in April differed too greatly from an earlier ruling. Italian media also reported that in April, Orsi was sentenced to four-a-half-years years in jail for false accounting and corruption. Also handed a four-year jail term on the same charges was Bruno Spagnolini, former head of Agusta Westland, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica. 

The pair had been sentenced to two years in prison in October 2014 for false accounting. The case against Orsi and Spagnolini resulted from an investigation launched in 2012 into the sale of 12 luxury helicopters to India's government. India cancelled the agreement with AgustaWestland in January 2014 amid allegations that the company paid bribes to win the 556-million-euro (that is, 753 million US dollar) contract.