Giving out verdict three former Tokyo Electric Power Co. executives has been acquitted by Japan’s court, all three had been accused of criminal negligence for their roles in the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The verdict makes it likely that no one will be held criminally responsible for one of the worst nuclear accidents in history — a catastrophe that led to a global backlash against nuclear power and created environmental damage that will haunt Japan for generations to come. The executives — Tsunehisa Katsumata, Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro — were the only people charged over the handling of the disaster, which forced more than 160,000 people in northeastern Japan to evacuate their homes to escape nuclear fallout that left areas surrounding the plant uninhabitable.
The quake and the tsunami killed thousands, but 44 people died in the chaos surrounding the evacuation of the area, prosecutors said. They attributed the deaths to negligence by the executives, who they said had failed to properly plan for the possibility of a nuclear accident despite previous warnings. None of the deaths were attributed to radiation-related illnesses.
The three executives argued that they could not have anticipated the damage caused by the unprecedented disaster, and the court appeared to agree Thursday.
