A Japanese court has found three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) not guilty of negligence over the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdowns and subsequent deaths of more than 40 elderly residents during their forced evacuation.
A Japanese court has found three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) not guilty of negligence over the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdowns and subsequent deaths of more than 40 elderly residents during their forced evacuation.
The Tokyo High Court ruling upheld a 2019 lower court decision that also acquitted the three former top Tepco officials, noting that a tsunami of that magnitude was unforeseeable.
The case is the only criminal trial related to the nuclear accident that led the former Tepco executives to face charges.
Minutes after Wednesday’s court hearing began, supporters held up posters saying: “All found not guilty. Unjust ruling.”
The court said ex-Tepco chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 82, and two other former executives were also not guilty of causing the deaths of 44 elderly patients whose already frail health deteriorated during or after forced evacuations from a local hospital and a nursing home.
The executives were accused of failing to anticipate the massive tsunami that struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on March 11 2011, following a magnitude 9 earthquake, and of failing to take measures that might have saved the plant.
