Fukushima residents charge Tepco officials with criminal negligence for nuclear catastrophe

TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata (2nd L) bows to apologize to Ikuhiro Hattori (2nd R), chief of Zengyoren, Japan Fisheries Cooperatives at TEPCO's headquarters in Tokyo, April 6, 2011CNN reports that 1,324 Fukushima Prefecture residents have accused 33 Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) officials, including its current chairman (Tsunehisa Katsumata, photo, left), as well as its former president (Masataka Shimizu), with criminal negligence. The Fukushima District Public Prosecutor's Office must now decide whether or not to file formal charges.

"The Fukushima nuclear accident is the worst corporate crime in Japan's history and caused significant damage to the life, health and assets of the people of Fukushima and the rest of Japan," the group said on its website, dubbed the Plaintiffs Against the Fukushima Nuclear Plant.

"We lost our homeland, filled with beautiful nature, and our irreplaceable community. We shoulder the heavy burden of a divided local community and we are sitting in the midst of a suffering which shall never end," said the group.