Panel decides 3 former TEPCO executives should face negligence charges over nuclear crisis

By Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press

TOKYO – A Japanese judicial committee has decided that three former utility executives should face criminal charges and stand trial for their alleged negligence in the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

A document released Friday showed the committee of independent citizens voted in favour of indicting Tsunehisa Katsumata, 75, who was chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co. at the time of the crisis, along with then-vice-presidents Sakae Muto, 65, and Ichiro Takeguro, 69.

The 11-member committee’s second decision supporting the indictment overrides Tokyo prosecutors’ two earlier decisions to drop the case, forcing the three men to be charged with professional negligence. It will be the first criminal case involving the utility’s officials from the nuclear disaster to be tried in court. The prosecutors had cited lack of evidence to prove they could foresee the danger of a tsunami and decided not to file charges in September 2013 and again in January this year.

The committee, in its July 17 decision, alleged that the three men neglected to take sufficient measures even though they were fully aware of the risk of a major tsunami at the Fukushima plant at least two years before the accident. It said they should be charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury during the accident and its aftermath, including the deaths of dozens of senior citizens in a hospital during and after the lengthy evacuation.

The Tokyo District Court will now choose a team of lawyers to act as prosecutors to formally press charges in court.

Three reactors had meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, triggering massive radiation leaks that forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate.

Government and parliamentary investigative reports have said TEPCO’s lack of safety culture and weak risk management, including an underestimate of tsunami threats, led to the disaster.

The committee’s decision sustains an appeal representing more than 5,700 people from Fukushima and other parts of Japan, urging prosecutors to investigate and send the utility executives to court to determine who was responsible for the disaster. They said the TEPCO executives failed to fulfil their obligation to prevent a serious accident.

The committee said Friday that TEPCO’s Fukushima Dai-ichi had a reputation as one of nuclear plants with “least safety margin for tsunami.”

TEPCO President Naomi Hirose declined to comment because the case was still pending.

“We’ve finally come this far,” said Ruiko Muto, who heads the group that filed the complaint, said Fukushima residents hit by the disaster have long sought their criminal liability to be clarified in court. “We believe the truth of the accident will be revealed in criminal trial proceedings to bring justice.”

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Follow Mari Yamaguchi at https://twitter.com/mariyamaguchi/

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