Rome ( CNN ) -- A Swiss man sentenced in an Italian court to a 16-year prison term in absentia over deaths of about 2,000 workers who prosecutors said were exposed to asbestos will appeal the ruling , his lawyer said Tuesday . Stephan Schmidheiny , the Swiss owner of the fiber-cement firm Eternit , was sentenced Monday alongside Belgian former executive and investor Jean Louis Marie Ghislain de Cartier de Marchienne . The pair were accused of failing to protect workers in the company 's four Italian factories before they were shuttered in 1986 . Schmidheiny 's lawyer , Astolfo Di Amato , told CNN Tuesday that his client did not accept the sentence handed down by the court in Turin , an industrial hub in northwestern Italy . `` The sentence is certainly a setback , we lost the first battle . ( It 's ) a defeat that we do n't accept and we will present an appeal , '' the lawyer said . He said Schmidheiny had invested large sums in the 1970s in restructuring the plants ' production process and had never set foot in Italy . `` The sentence is dangerous because if in Italy we affirm the principle that the major shareholder of a multinational company is responsible for what happens in each peripheral plant , no one will invest in Italy any longer , '' he said . Schmidheiny and De Cartier were also ordered to pay a total of â‚¬80 million ( $ 105 million ) to more than 6,000 people , including former workers and residents who lived near their plants . Bruno Pesce , the leader of Italy 's asbestos victims association , said more than 1,500 people attended Monday 's hearing -- including some who were suffering from asbestos-linked illnesses . `` It was a very emotional moment , '' Pesce said . `` People were crying because of tension and then of happiness . '' Renato Balduzzi , Italy 's health minister , called the sentence `` historic . '' The Italian Eternit company was declared bankrupt in 1986 , when the Italian plants were shut down , and the company 's ownership changed in the 1990s . A spokesman for the Swiss Eternit company , Balts Livio , said it was independent from the Italian firm of the same name . `` Neither Eternit ( Schweiz ) AG nor its owner had or have any relationship with Eternit S.p.A. , Genoa , and thus with the subject of the criminal proceedings in Turin , '' Livio said . Asbestos was once widely used as a fireproofing material and was included in roof shingles and siding for decades . Though now banned in Italy and most Western countries , asbestos is still used in developing countries , mainly in China and India . Exposure to its tiny fibers , particularly over a period of time , can lead to asbestos-related diseases that include lung cancer , asbestosis and mesothelioma , according to the National Institutes for Health .
Jean Louis Marie Ghislain de Cartier de Marchienne will appeal his sentence in an Belgian court , his lawyer says . Schmidheiny and a Italian colleague are accused of failing to protect workers from asbestos . the National Institutes for Health 's lawyer says the sentence will deter other big firms from investing in India . Exposure to asbestos can lead to lung diseases and cancer .