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Court acquits officials in Pohang geothermal plant earthquake case

pohang earthquake geothermal power plant court ruling

L'essentiel

A South Korean court acquitted five officials involved in Pohang's geothermal power plant project of criminal negligence, ruling out a substantial causal link to the 2017 earthquake.
A civil lawsuit related to the quake is still pending.

Résumé généré par IA

Pourquoi c'est important

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck Pohang in 2017, killing one person and injuring 80, leading to criminal negligence charges against officials involved in a geothermal power plant project.

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SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- A court ruled Thursday that it is difficult to recognize the criminal liability of officials involved in Pohang's geothermal power plant project in connection with the southeastern city's fatal earthquake in 2017.

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck Pohang, some 270 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Nov. 15, 2017, followed by a magnitude 4.6 aftershock on Feb. 11, 2018, killing one person, injuring 80 others and causing significant property damage.

Then the prosecution indicted five officials involved in the geothermal power plant project on negligence charges, saying the project should have been halted and its risks analyzed after a magnitude 3.1 earthquake struck on April 15, 2017.

But the Pohang branch of the Daegu District Court acquitted all five defendants, rejecting the prosecution's claims.

The court said specific professional negligence had to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to hold the defendants criminally liable and a substantial causal relationship between the geothermal power project and the earthquake could not be recognized.

Meanwhile, a separate civil lawsuit related to the earthquakes and the geothermal power plant project is still pending.