By YURI MURAKAMI/ Staff Writer
January 18, 2023 at 17:30 JST
Protesters outside the Tokyo High Court on Jan. 18 hoist signs calling the ruling unfair. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)
Three former high-ranking Tokyo Electric Power Co. executives were absolved of criminal responsibility by the Tokyo High Court on Jan. 18 for the 2011 nuclear disaster.
The appeals court ruling, which upheld a lower court ruling, exonerated Tsunehisa Katsumata, 82, a former TEPCO chairman, Ichiro Takekuro, 76, a former vice president, and Sakae Muto, 72, also a former vice president.
The three defendants had received mandatory indictments on charges of criminal negligence resulting in deaths and injuries related to the disaster at the utility’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
The deaths and injuries cited in the indictments occurred during the evacuation of areas near the crippled plant. Forty-four patients who were at Futaba Hospital about 4.5 kilometers from the plant died of malnutrition and dehydration during the evacuation process or later at emergency shelters.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office initially decided not to indict the former executives, citing a lack of evidence. The decision was reviewed by a prosecution inquest panel, which concluded that the three must stand trial.
The Tokyo District Court in September 2019 found the three defendants not guilty, leading to an appeal by the lawyers who served as the prosecutors in the case.
Those acting as prosecutors argued that the three defendants failed to take action to prevent the accident despite government forecasts that a tsunami exceeding the roughly 10-meter height of the main plant facilities could overwhelm the site.
But the Tokyo High Court again found that they bore no criminal responsibility for the nuclear accident.
In a separate civil lawsuit, the Tokyo District Court in July 2022 ordered the three former executives as well as another former executive to pay about 13 trillion yen ($98.9 billion) in compensation to 48 shareholders over the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
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