Ex-public servant acquitted over distribution of communist paper+

TOKYO, March 29 Kyodo -
The Tokyo High Court on Monday acquitted a former government agency employee of
violating the civil service law for handing out copies of the Japanese
Communist Party's newspaper in 2003, overturning a lower court's guilty ruling.
Akio Horikoshi, 56, a former employee of the now-defunct Social Insurance
Agency, received a rare suspended fine at the Tokyo District Court in 2006, but
Monday's High Court ruling reversed that decision, saying his actions did not
undermine the administrative neutrality of a public servant.
''The defendant's actions were sporadic and unrelated to his work, and it is
difficult to recognize that there were risks of hurting the neutrality of
administrative management and public trust,'' said Presiding Judge Takao
Nakayama, adding it would be an ''excessive restriction'' of freedom to punish
the man.
The judge added that public servants' freedom of political activities has grown
to cover a wider range and ''it is time to reexamine'' what actions should be
subject to punishment.
Horikoshi was arrested and indicted in March 2004 for distributing extra
editions of Shimbun Akahata in neighbors' mailboxes in October and November of
2003, shortly before a House of Representatives election.
It was the first time that a government official was accused of violating
Article 102 of the civil service law since the Supreme Court found a postal
worker guilty in 1974 of involvement in an election campaign for a Japan
Socialist Party candidate, in what became known as the ''Sarufutsu incident.''
Article 102 of the law bans civil servants from engaging in political activities.
Horikoshi and his defense team had sought acquittal, arguing that the
distribution of the newspaper was a private act as it was done on a weekend and
away from his workplace.
The district court in June 2006 sentenced Horikoshi to a 100,000 yen fine
suspended for two years after recognizing his action violated the National
Civil Service Law but did not immediately undermine the neutrality of a public
servant.
''It is my greatest joy that the judge recognized my actions did not constitute
a crime at all,'' said Horikoshi at a press conference after the ruling.
Saying he was relieved to hear the decision, he added, ''Although Japan has
been left behind in the field of democracy, I think Japanese history changed''
with the ruling.
The indictment of Horikoshi was one of a series of accusations regarding the
distribution of political fliers.
In 2004, three members of a citizens' group were arrested for trespassing in a
housing complex for Self-Defense Forces members in Tokyo to distribute leaflets
expressing opposition to the dispatch of SDF troops to Iraq. Their conviction
was finalized.
In November last year, meanwhile, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by a
Buddhist monk found guilty by the Tokyo High Court of trespassing at a Tokyo
condominium to distribute JCP leaflets.
The latest ruling was welcomed by Horikoshi's supporters and others related to
the JCP as well.
''Looking at it from the standpoint of freedom of expression ensured under the
Constitution, it is a righteous ruling,'' said Tadayoshi Ichida, secretary
general of the JCP, adding the prosecutors should give up on appealing it.
Horikoshi lost his public servant status after he was employed at the Japan
Pension Service, which in January succeeded the Social Insurance Agency.
==Kyodo