An Osaka public panel yesterday [Thursday] said that prosecutors have been unduly lenient when sparing two senior executives at Snow Brand Milk Products from indictment charges.

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The panel said the executives should have been indicted for professional negligence over the food poisoning incident in 2000, which led to the death of one consumer and made some 13,400 others sick.


The Osaka No. 1 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, consisting of 11 eligible voters, has adopted a resolution criticising the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office for failing to indict former Snow Brand President Tetsuro Ishikawa and former senior MD Hiroshi Soma.


The public panel decreed that the executives “could well have foreseen” the incident.

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