MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2023) An appeals court in Tokyo upheld on Wednesday the acquittal of three former executives of Japan's electric utility Tepco who were accused of being responsible for the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, media said.
The Tokyo High Court backed the ruling of a lower district court that cleared former Tepco chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and two vice presidents, Ichiro Takekuro and Sakae Muto, of negligence charges, Kyodo news agency reported.
The three were accused in 2016 of failing to put tsunami countermeasures in place, resulting in 44 deaths and multiple injuries. A Tokyo District Court ruled in 2019 that they could not have predicted huge waves that crippled the power plant and caused a meltdown at one of its reactors.
Prosecutors demanded a five-year prison sentence for each of the accused, while their defense rejected all charges.
Separately, Japan's Supreme Court cleared the government last year of responsibility for the disaster, saying it would not have been able to prevent the accident.
