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Agence France Presse TOKYO, 12 March 2002 -- A Japanese man who had conspired with others to illegally ship hazardous waste to the Philippines was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday. Katsuhiro Mizuguchi, 64, was found guilty of conspiracy to ship 2,160 tonnes of medical and industrial waste to the Philippines in 1999 by falsely claiming that the containers carried such items as recyclable used papers. Jiji Press said Mizuguchi conspired with the president of a Japanese industrial waste disposal firm to ship a total of 122 containers filled with industrial waste to the Philippines. The shipment of medical waste is illegal unless it has been specially treated. The incident became a national embarassment to Japan which eventually shipped the waste back in 2000 at the request of the Philippine government. The Utsunomiya District Court is to hand down its ruling on co-defendant Hiromi Ito, the president of the waste disposal company, next week. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a `fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond `fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. More News |