VESZPREM, Hungary – A judge today dismissed prosecution demands that the head of a metals company linked to Hungary’s devastating red sludge spill be charged with negligence and he was released from police custody, his lawyer said.
The decision was sure to embitter hundreds of villagers who blame the management of MAL Rt. for the deaths of nine people, the hundreds of homes left uninhabitable and the poisoning of local waterways.
The judge ruled in company director Zoltan Bakonyi’s favor after finding that prosecutors couldn’t substantiate their argument that Bakonyi did not sufficiently prepare emergency warning and rescue plans in case of accidents like the sludge spill, his lawyer Janos Banati said.
Prosecutors were preparing an appeal, Banati said, appearing after the closed court hearing reviewing the case.
Bakonyi “remains perplexed by what may have caused the collapse of the reservoir,” Banati said, acknowledging that his client could later face other or similar charges.
About 700,000 cubic meters (184 million gallons) of caustic sludge and water burst from a storage pool of a metals plant Oct. 4, inundating three western Hungarian towns and spilling into the Danube.
“Life won’t be returning to normal for a very, very long time,” said Devecser Mayor Tamas Toldi, whose town was one those swamped by the toxic slurry.
Authorities said cracks in the wall of the reservoir appear not to have grown wider, calming some fears that further collapse would release a second flood of sludge.
Interior Minister Sandor Pinter said Kolontar, the town closest to the reservoir, would remain evacuated until at least Friday. But the nearly completed construction of a protective wall there to contain any new spill meant residents in Devecser no longer had to be ready to leave on short notice.
Pinter, however, said the state of alert in the area would remain in place until it was certain that the remaining sludge in the 10-hectare (25-acre) storage pool — estimated at 2.5 million cubic meters (664 million gallons) — would not leak out.
The death toll rose to nine after an elderly man died overnight, disaster management officials said. Of the more than 100 hurt by the caustic slurry, around 50 people remained hospitalized.
Banati said Wednesday’s ruling reflected defense arguments that the company had emergency plans that had been approved by government authorities and that did not need updating when Bakonyi took over two years ago. He also said he knew of no incriminating testimony against Bakonyi from employees of his firm.
Bakonyi is the managing director of MAL Rt., or the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company, which owned the reservoir, part of the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant in Ajka, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Budapest.
On Monday, lawmakers approved a bill sponsored by the defense minister allowing the government to take control of any company involved in a disaster. Gyorgy Bakondi and an 18-member committee were named Tuesday to supervise MAL Rt. and make practically all decisions for the company.
Here, Escorted by a police officer, right, Zoltan Bakonyi managing director of MAL Rt, left, the aluminum company whose broken reservoir flooded towns in western Hungary with toxic red sludge, lifts his arms while covering his face after being released from police custody in Veszprem, Hungary, today. (AP Photo
