By Luciana Magalhaes and Samantha Pearson 

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil -- Brazilian police will announce criminal charges Friday against Vale SA and its German safety auditor TÜV SÜD over the miner's deadly dam collapse in January, according to a person familiar with the probe.

In the first charges following the tragedy, police will also formally accuse seven individuals from Vale and six employees from TÜV SÜD, including a director of the certifications group in Germany, the person said, without naming the accused. Police are set to give further details in a news conference Friday morning.

A spokeswoman for Vale said the miner didn't have an immediate comment. A spokesman for TÜV SÜD had no immediate comment.

The charges come almost eight months after Vale's mine-waste dam collapsed in the town of Brumadinho, killing 270 people, the world's most deadly disaster of its kind in more than half a century.

Under Brazilian law, police can only formally accuse suspects, while it is up to prosecutors to file the charges before a judge.

--Alistair MacDonald in London contributed to this article.

Write to Luciana Magalhaes at Luciana.Magalhaes@wsj.com and Samantha Pearson at samantha.pearson@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 20, 2019 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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