Fukushima Nuclear Disaster: Prosecutors Request Prison Time For Executives

Long-time Slashdot reader reporter shared this article from NPR:
The former chairman and two vice presidents of the Tokyo Electric Power Co. should spend five years in prison over the 2011 flooding and meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, Japanese prosecutors say, accusing the executives of failing to prevent a foreseeable catastrophe. Prosecutors say the TEPCO executives didn't do enough to protect the nuclear plant, despite being told in 2002 that the Fukushima facility was vulnerable to a tsunami....
'It was easy to safeguard the plant against tsunami, but they kept operating the plant heedlessly,' prosecutors said on Wednesday, according to The Asahi Shimbun. 'That led to the deaths of many people.' Former TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 78; former Vice President Ichiro Takekuro, 72; and former Vice President Sakae Muto, 68, face charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury....
All three have pleaded not guilty in Tokyo District Court, saying they could not have predicted the tsunami.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.