Three former Japanese utility executives were yesterday formally charged with negligence in the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant disaster, becoming the first officials from the company to face a criminal trial.
Five court-appointed lawyers indicted Tsunehisa Katsumata, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) at the time of the crisis, and two other TEPCO executives, according to the lawyers’ offices.
The three men, charged with professional negligence, were not taken into custody.
Photo: Reuters / Kyodo
The indictment follows a decision in July last year by an 11-member judicial committee to send the three men to a criminal court after prosecutors dropped the case twice, saying they could not obtain sufficient evidence to file criminal charges against them.
In Japan, a court-appointed judicial committee has the final say about criminal complaints filed to a prosecutors’ office, which are then dropped.
Proving criminal responsibility for failing to prevent the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdowns might be difficult, but many people, including residents of the area affected by the disaster, say they hope any trial would reveal information about the disaster and TEPCO’s role that has not been disclosed by the utility.
“I believe truths about the accident that we are not told of yet will be revealed in court, and that a fair ruling will be handed down to the defendants for their responsibility,” said Ruiko Muto, head of a group of more than 5,000 people from Fukushima and other parts of Japan that filed the criminal complaint four years ago.
Three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility suffered meltdowns after being damaged by a massive March 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The accident released large amounts of radiation, forcing tens of thousands of nearby residents to evacuate.
The indictment said Katsumata, 75, along with Sakae Muto, 65, and Ichiro Takekuro, 69, who were vice president and technical adviser respectively, failed to foresee and take precautionary steps for the tsunami, resulting in the deaths of 44 hospitalized elderly people during the evacuation period and injuries to 13 soldiers who responded to the emergency, Kyodo news agency said.
The three executives have said that predicting a tsunami of that magnitude was impossible.
The judicial committee in July last year said that the three men were aware by 2009 of the risk of a massive tsunami to the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. It said they should be charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury during the accident and its aftermath.
Reports from government investigations have said a lack of a safety culture in TEPCO and weak risk management led to the disaster.
TEPCO declined to comment yesterday.
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