TOULOUSE (Reuters) - French criminal prosecutors called for a 225,000 euro fine, the highest permitted by law, to be levied on former Total unit Grande Paroisse over an explosion at a chemical fertiliser plant in 2001 that killed 31.
Prosecutors also recommended on Wednesday that Serge Biechelin, the former manager of the AZF plant in Toulouse, southwestern France, receive the maximum sentence of three years and a fine of 45,000 euros. The prison term would be suspended, they said.
Patrice Michel, one of the prosecutors in the case, told a French court earlier on Wednesday that Total group and its former head, Thierry Desmarest, should not be sentenced over the incident.
The gigantic explosion at the plant in September 2001 was one of the worst industrial accidents in western Europe in recent years. It left more than 2,000 people injured and damaged 30,000 homes and hundreds of businesses within a radius of about six kilometres.
Judges have ruled that an accident was the most likely cause of the explosion, and investigators have accused AZF of negligence in stocking volatile ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in its fertilisers.
Total has paid 2 billion euros (1.7 billion pounds) in compensation but has denied any wrongdoing and said the payouts did not in any way constitute an acknowledgement of criminal responsibility.
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(Reporting by Nicolas Fichot; Writing by James Regan; editing by John Stonestreet)