On June 7, 2010, an Indian court convicted seven former employees of US chemical producer Union Carbide on charges relating to the 1984 Bhopal chemical spill disaster. The seven men were convicted of "death by negligence" and each sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $2,100 in fines. The Bhopal disaster involved the accidental release of toxic gas by a chemical plant owned by a Union Carbide subsidiary company, killing approximately 18,800 people and permanently disabling another 50,000. In May 2011, the Supreme Court of India dismissed a government petition to impose harsher sentences on the convicted employees.

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Learn more about India and the legal consequences of the Bhopal disaster from the JURIST news archive.

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