DHAKA: The owner of a Bangladesh garment factory that was destroyed in a deadly fire last year said yesterday that he was “saddened and astonished” that he had been charged with culpable homicide for the death of 112 workers and would plead innocent in court.
The police on Sunday laid charges against Delwar Hossain, his wife and 11 employees of Tazreen Fashions, a rare step in a country where critics complain that powerful garment industry bosses too often avoid blame for the many factory accidents.
Many of those who died in the blaze at the multi-storey building on the outskirts of Dhaka in November 2012 perished because supervisors ordered workers back to their stations even as an alarm rang and smoke rose through an internal staircase.
Hossain was absolved of blame earlier this year in a report by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association on the incident.
“It saddened and astonished me to see that both my wife and I are the main accused,” Hossain told Reuters by telephone, adding that supervisors who had allegedly blocked workers trying to escape from the burning factory were still on the run.
“I have the full respect for the law, and because of that I did not try to flee the country though I had a US visa. I am not guilty and will try to prove it when the trial begins.” The charges against the 13 included breaching construction rules and building design faults such as the failure to provide two emergency exits, an investigating officer said. If convicted the accused face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The Tazreen fire tragedy put a spotlight on global retailers that source clothes from Bangladesh. Hossain was held captive in his office by angry workers at another of his factories for more than 18 hours in October until he paid a promised bonus, just one incident in a long-running confrontation this year between management and workers over pay.
Reuters
