Local protesters show outrage over red-sludge court ruling

Budapest, February 4 (MTI) – Around fifty people held a demonstration against the court ruling over Hungary’s 2010 red-sludge disaster, in western Hungary, on Thursday.

The court acquitted all 15 suspects in the case of the country’s worst environmental disaster 6 years ago.

At the demonstration staged in front of Veszprem city court, Károly Tili, the independent mayor of Kolontár, the settlement that was hardest hit, said local residents refused to accept the ruling.

“Unless we join our forces, those responsible for the disaster will never be identified,” he said.

Gábor Ferenczi, the (Jobbik) mayor of Devecser, insisted that the ruling was not in proportion to the scale of the disaster. He noted a parliamentary committee report had blamed the company’s management for the disaster. Had the managers mandated regular inspections the disaster could have been prevented, he said.

Zsolt Márton, the independent mayor of Somlóvásárhely, expressed hope that the culprits would soon be identified.

Lajos Kepli, a lawmaker for Jobbik who headed a parliamentary investigation into the sludge spill, said those responsible should be put behind bars. The culprits should have paid compensation to the victims but instead taxpayers did, he said.

In October in 2010, one million cubic metres of toxic red sludge escaped from the reservoir of the Mal company’s alumina plant, flooding the nearby villages of Kolontar and Somlovasarhely, and the town of Devecser.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters