Tokyo court upholds not guilty verdict for ex-Tepco execs over Fukushima disaster

A combination picture shows (L-R) former Tokyo Electric Power Co.(TEPCO) Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and Ichiro Takekuro and Sakae Muto, former vice presidents of TEPCO, arriving at the Tokyo District Court for the first criminal trial over the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Tokyo, Japan in this photo taken by Kyodo June 30, 2017. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld a not guilty criminal verdict by a lower court that cleared former Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) executives of negligence over the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power station disaster.

Former Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata and one-time executives Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro were all found not guilty by the Tokyo District Court in 2019, in the only criminal case to arise out of the world's worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.