Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Demonstrators gathered in front of the Tokyo Supreme Court on Friday to protest the decision to exonerate three former directors of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) in the criminal negligence case over the nuclear accident at the Fukushima power plant in 2011.

Three lawyers and 12 plaintiffs submitted a petition with 4,123 signatures calling for the dismissal of Judge KUSANO Koichi. The petition accuses the judge of a conflict of interest as a consulting company with which he is associated providing legal communication strategy advice to TEPCO.

The signatories also demand that the three former CEOs implicated in the nuclear accident be found guilty. The appeal concerning the decision to exonerate the executives is now being heard at the Supreme Court.

Defense lawyer KAITO Yuichi says the decision in the High Court last year to exonerate the three defendants was “astonishing.”

The lawyers, who initiated a class-action suit involving more than 14,700 plaintiffs in the criminal trial, have formally requested that the three TEPCO executives take responsibility for the disaster.

Almost 13 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, there are still 70,000 evacuees who have not returned home and many community ties in Fukushima have been broken. Lawyer Kaito, who regularly visits the region, expressed concern about the situation in that Prefecture.