Acquittal of two former Tepco executives finalized
Japanese court rulings acquitting two former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings over the 2011 nuclear disaster at its Fukushima No. 1 power plant were finalized on Tuesday.
The trial ended without anyone facing criminal responsibility for the unprecedented accident, rated Level 7 — the worst — on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
The development came after lawyers acting as prosecutors did not file an appeal against the Supreme Court's decision last week that upheld the not-guilty verdicts of Tokyo district and high courts for former Tepco vice presidents Ichiro Takekuro, 78, and Sakae Muto, 74.
The two, as well as former Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, were indicted by the lawyers acting as prosecutors in February 2016 on charges of business negligence resulting in death and injury over the triple meltdown at the power plant in Fukushima Prefecture that followed a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
The district court in September 2019 found all three not guilty, with the high court backing the decision in January 2023.
As Katsumata died at age 84 in October last year, his case was dismissed the following month.
On Tuesday, over 50 people gathered in front of the Supreme Court building in Tokyo in protest.
"An acquaintance of mine died due to the effects of the nuclear accident," said Hiromu Murata, 82, who relocated to Yokohama from the Fukushima city of Soma due to the accident. "Those who have died cannot rest in peace with such a judicial decision."
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