Former staff of Union Carbide Indian subsidiary guilty of death by negligence over disaster that killed up to 25,000 people
Jason Burke in Delhi
Campaign groups representing survivors of the Bhopal disaster expressed outrage today at the "insulting" sentences given to seven men for their roles in the tragedy.
The accused, several of them now in their 70s, were convicted of criminal negligence and sentenced to two years in prison but bailed pending an appeal.
The convictions are the only ones so far in a case that was opened the day after the tragedy, which happened 26 years ago.
Up to 25,000 people are thought to have died after being exposed to clouds of lethal gas that escaped from a chemical plant run by the US company Union Carbide on 2 and 3 December 1984.
Half a million are estimated to have been harmed in some way in what remains one of the worst industrial accidents in the world.
"There is a sense of betrayal, of major outrage. This is not merely too little too late, but it is also a slap in the face of all those who were hoping for some kind of salve on their wounds," said Nitiyanand Jayaraman, of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal.
Hundreds of protesters, many waving placards saying "hang the guilty" and "traitors of the nation", tried to force their way into the court complex but were stopped by police.
Ram Prasad, a 75-year-old resident of the area, said the sentence was not enough. "I lost my son, younger brother and my father and I still have nightmares," he told reporters.
