TRANI, Italy, March 30 (Reuters) - An Italian court acquitted credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's and five of its former and current managers in a market manipulation case related to 2011 and 2012 downgrades of the country's sovereign debt, a judge said on Thursday.
Judge Giulia Pavesi read the ruling out loud in a courtroom in the city of Trani, in southern Italy.
S&P welcomed the acquittal, saying the agency and its employees had "now been granted the justice they deserve", an emailed statement said.
Rating agencies have come under fire in Italy for their role during the sovereign debt crisis, when a series of cuts to the country's ratings compounded economic and political problems that had sent borrowing costs soaring.
Italian prosecutors had sought jail sentences of between two and three years and fines of up to 500,000 euros ($536,900) for the executives, as well as a fine of 4.6 million euros for the rating agency itself.
($1 = 0.9313 euros)
(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Vincenzo Damiani, writing by Agnieszka Flak) ((agnieszka.flak@thomsonreuters.com; +39 02 6612 9450; Reuters Messaging: agnieszka.flak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Judge Giulia Pavesi read the ruling out loud in a courtroom in the city of Trani, in southern Italy.
S&P welcomed the acquittal, saying the agency and its employees had "now been granted the justice they deserve", an emailed statement said.
Rating agencies have come under fire in Italy for their role during the sovereign debt crisis, when a series of cuts to the country's ratings compounded economic and political problems that had sent borrowing costs soaring.
Italian prosecutors had sought jail sentences of between two and three years and fines of up to 500,000 euros ($536,900) for the executives, as well as a fine of 4.6 million euros for the rating agency itself.
($1 = 0.9313 euros)
(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Vincenzo Damiani, writing by Agnieszka Flak) ((agnieszka.flak@thomsonreuters.com; +39 02 6612 9450; Reuters Messaging: agnieszka.flak.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
