A Bangladesh court has charged several people with homicide in relation to the 2012 garment factory fire that killed 112 workers.
"A senior judicial magistrate, Wasim Sheikh, today (Tuesday) accepted the charges against 13 accused and issued warrants for the arrest of six people, including the owner," Dhaka judicial magistrate court Inspector Mohammad Asaduzzaman told CNN.
Delwar Hossain, and with his wife, Mahmuda Akther, are the owners of Tazreen Fashions Ldt, the factory where the fire occurred. They, along with four other factory employees, are charged with "culpable homicide not amounting to murder" and "causing death by negligence," the Wall Street Journal reported.
If convicted, those arrested face up to life in prison.
This is the first time Bangladesh's penal system has held a factory worker accountable for bringing about the deaths of garment industry workers. Bangladesh's garment industry is second only to China's and rakes in $20 billion annually. This makes prosecutors hesitant to take action against powerful dealers in the industry, the Wall Street Journal reported.
But that's changing now in light of recent deadly factory fires, most notably the April 2012 factory collapse and fire that killed over 1,100 garment workers.
In addition to the 112 victims of the November 2012 fire at Tazreen Fashions, 200 people were injured. More than half of the dead could not be identified because of the bodily damage from the fire, CNN reported. A government panel said the factory's owner should be held accountable for not providing a safe environment for the workers.
"The owner of the factory should be brought to justice, as we find the proper safety measures could have lessened the fatalities," said Main Uddin Khandaker, head of the government committee, according to CNN.
It's up to local police to find and arrest those named in the warrants. If they are not arrested by Feb. 25, the trial could proceed without them, the Associated Press reported.
