Former Fukushima executives to go on trial over nuclear disaster

Three former Japanese utility executives stand trial this week on the only criminal charges laid in the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, which saw reactor meltdown after an earthquake and tsunami six years ago, with thousands still unable to return to homes near the shuttered nuclear plant.

The hearing on Friday comes more than a year after ex-Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 77, and former vice presidents Sakae Muto, 66, and Ichiro Takekuro, 71, were formally charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury.

The reactor meltdowns at the plant set off the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 and spread radiation across a wide area in northeastern Japan. It led to evacuations that left more than 100,000 homeless. The sudden and often chaotic evacuations caused the deaths of 44 people, believed to have been for the most-part older Fukushima residents who were in hospitals and nursing homes, or bedridden at home, when the disaster occurred.

"We hope the trial will shed light on where the responsibility for this accident...lies," Ruiko Muto, who heads a group that pushed for the trial, told AFP news agency.

"The accident hasn't been resolved. There is nuclear waste from the cleanup efforts everywhere in Fukushima and there are still many unresolved problems," she said.

The trial follows a battle over whether or not to indict the Tepco executives.

Prosecutors had twice refused to press charges against the men, citing insufficient evidence and little chance of conviction.

But a judicial review panel composed of ordinary citizens ruled in 2015 - for the second time since the accident - that the trio should be put on trial.

That decision compelled prosecutors to press on with the criminal case under Japanese law.

"We want a verdict as soon as possible," Muto said.

"Some victims of this tragedy have died without seeing the start of the trial."

If convicted, the men face up to five years in prison or a penalty of up to one million yen (€7,832.43).