A court in the Indian city of Bhopal is due to rule on whether a gas plant leak that killed thousands of people more than 25 years ago was a criminal act.
The leak at the Union Carbide plant was worst industrial disaster in history.
Forty tonnes of a toxin called methyl isocyanate leaked from the factory and settled over slums on 3 December 1984.
Campaigners say at least 15,000 people were killed within days, and say the horrific effects of the gas continue to this day.
The site of the former pesticide plant is now abandoned.
It was taken over by the state government of Madhya Pradesh in 1998, but environmentalists say poison is still found there.
More than a dozen judges have heard the criminal case since 1987, when India's leading detective agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), charged 12 people with "culpable homicide not amounting to murder".
That charge could have led to up to 10 years of imprisonment for the accused.
Among those accused are Warren Anderson, the chairman of Union Carbide at the time of the incident in 1984.
However, in 1996, India's Supreme Court reduced the charges to "death by negligence", carrying a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison if convicted.
"Everyone is angry because the accused, if convicted, will get away with a light term of two years,' Bhopal activist Abdul Jabbar said ahead of the court's verdict.
Campaigners say Bhopal has an unusually high incidence of children with birth defects and growth deficiency, as well as cancers, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.
These are seen not only among survivors of the gas leak but among people born many years later, they say.
Twenty years ago Union Carbide paid $470m (£282m) in compensation to the Indian government.
Dow Chemicals, which bought the company in 1999, says this settlement resolved all existing and future claims against the company.
Source http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8725140.stm
The leak at the Union Carbide plant was worst industrial disaster in history.
Forty tonnes of a toxin called methyl isocyanate leaked from the factory and settled over slums on 3 December 1984.
Campaigners say at least 15,000 people were killed within days, and say the horrific effects of the gas continue to this day.
The site of the former pesticide plant is now abandoned.
It was taken over by the state government of Madhya Pradesh in 1998, but environmentalists say poison is still found there.
More than a dozen judges have heard the criminal case since 1987, when India's leading detective agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), charged 12 people with "culpable homicide not amounting to murder".
That charge could have led to up to 10 years of imprisonment for the accused.
Among those accused are Warren Anderson, the chairman of Union Carbide at the time of the incident in 1984.
However, in 1996, India's Supreme Court reduced the charges to "death by negligence", carrying a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison if convicted.
"Everyone is angry because the accused, if convicted, will get away with a light term of two years,' Bhopal activist Abdul Jabbar said ahead of the court's verdict.
Campaigners say Bhopal has an unusually high incidence of children with birth defects and growth deficiency, as well as cancers, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.
These are seen not only among survivors of the gas leak but among people born many years later, they say.
Twenty years ago Union Carbide paid $470m (£282m) in compensation to the Indian government.
Dow Chemicals, which bought the company in 1999, says this settlement resolved all existing and future claims against the company.
Source http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8725140.stm
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