Remedia trial underway
Remedia, Health Ministry execs indicted for negligent homicide, consumer fraud for respective parts in distribution of faulty baby formula in 2003. Court grants defense's continuance, pushes trial to March 2009
Five years after three babies died and 20 others were left severely debilitated due to a vitamin B1 deficiency in Remedia's vegetarian baby formula, the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court finally held its first hearing on the case.
Wednesday saw the State Prosecutor's Office file charges against eight Remedia and Health Ministry defendants in the case, which have yet to enter a plea.
Former Remedia owner Moshe Miller, CEO Gideon Landsberger, Remedia food technologist Frederic Black and the Health Ministry's Dr. Nitzan-Klosky, former director-general of the National Food Service, face multiple counts of negligent homicide, criminal negligence, reckless endangerment, consumer fraud and obstruction of justice.
Several Health Ministry inspectors have also been indicted on counts of professional negligence and acts contributing to the spreading of a disease, for failing to subject the baby formula to the proper tests prior to authorizing its distribution.
The court's first decision in the case was to grant the defense a continuance, after the defendants' legal team claimed it was not made privy to material case files pertaining to the indictment. The court set the next hearing to March of 2009.
