FORMER France Telecom chief executive Didier Lombard and six other managers face possible jail sentences as they stand trial over staff suicides at the company in the late 2000s.

They are accused of creating a culture of harassment at the firm, which was renamed Orange in 2013, leading to at least 19 workers taking their own lives.

The deaths followed an aggressive restructuring programme begun in 2006, shortly after the company was privatised. Mr Lombard planned to axe 22,000 jobs with a further 10,000 to be retrained.