BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A Hungarian court has sentenced to prison two former executives of an alumina plant involved in the 2010 red sludge flood, an industrial disaster which killed eight people and injured more than 220.
Zoltan B. got 2.5 years in prison, while Jozsef D. received a two-year sentence. Both are former executives of MAL Zrt.
Monday’s verdict in the court in the city of Gyor also included suspended prison sentences, fines or reprimands to eight other people on trial, while five were acquitted.
On Oct. 4, 2010, about 2 million cubic meters (528 million gallons) of toxic red sludge and water stored in a huge reservoir of an alumina plant near the city Ajka, western Hungary, flooded three villages and towns in the area after one of the reservoir walls collapsed.
