3 ex-JR West heads to be indicted over 2005 train disaster+

KOBE, March 26 Kyodo -
An independent judicial panel on Friday confirmed its earlier decision to
indict three former presidents of West Japan Railway Co., known as JR West,
over a 2005 train derailment that claimed the lives of 106 passengers and the
driver.

The second decision by the Kobe No. 1 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution
paves the way for Masataka Ide, 74, Shojiro Nanya, 68, and Takeshi Kakiuchi,
65, to be charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury.
Ide served as adviser, Nanya chairman and Kakiuchi president of JR West at the
time of the fatal accident. Ide was widely regarded as the most influential
figure at the company at the time.
Under the revised inquest of prosecution law that came into force in May 2009,
indictments will be automatically made if an inquest panel decides twice that
the accused should be indicted.
A court-appointed lawyer will act as prosecutor and file criminal charges
against the three former JR West presidents.
The document of indictment against the three will be filed with the Kobe
District Court before April 30, when the five-year statute of limitations on
the case will expire.
The inquest body reached the decision as bereaved families of the victims
complained about prosecutors' decision not to indict the three.
This would be the second case of indictment not by the prosecution. In January,
a separate inquest body also in Kobe decided that a former police officer
should be charged with negligence in failing to prevent a fatal stampede in
2001 in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, that claimed the lives of 11 people and
injured more than 200 others. That decision paved the way for indictment of the
then deputy chief of the Akashi Police Station.
In Friday's decision, the inquest panel said that the three former JR West
heads were aware that trains could derail at the accident site, which was a
sharply curved section of track, but they neglected to install an automatic
train stop system there.
A committee for the inquest of prosecution is established at all the country's
district courts. Formed by 11 citizens, the panel's mission is to look into
decisions by prosecutors who monopolize the authority to indict or not.
All three former JR West presidents issued statements Friday, saying they would
take the panel decision seriously. They also offered apologies to the victims,
bereaved families and the injured people.
On the morning of April 25, 2005, a speeding train derailed at a curved section
of track on the Fukuchiyama Line and crashed into an adjacent apartment
building in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, killing 107 people and injuring 562
others.
It was the worst railway accident in Japan since the Japan Railway group was
launched in 1987 following the breakup and privatization of the Japanese
National Railways.
In July 2009, the prosecutors indicted then JR West President Masao Yamazaki,
66, who was responsible for safety issues at the time of the accident, but did
not bring charges against the three former presidents.
The Kobe inquest panel made its first decision in October 2009 that the three
former JR West heads should be indicted.
Acting on the panel decision, the Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office
reopened investigations but decided not to slap charges two months later,
citing a lack of evidence.
Friday's panel decision paves the way for JR West's four successive presidents
to be criminally charged.
==Kyodo
2010-03-27 01:43:26


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