ID :
119131
Wed, 04/28/2010 - 08:30
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/119131
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Inquest panel says Ozawa merits indictment over political funds+
TOKYO, April 27 Kyodo - An independent judicial panel said Tuesday it has decided that Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa merits indictment over his fund management body's alleged false reporting of political funds from 2004 to 2007.
The 11 citizens who form the Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of
Prosecution voted unanimously in favor of the decision, judicial sources said.
Following the decision, Ozawa said he will remain in his post. ''I believe the
investigative authorities will make an appropriate judgment in the end,'' he
told reporters.
But Ozawa is expected to face renewed calls for his resignation from the ruling
party's No. 2 post.
Given the panel decision, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office will
reinvestigate the case.
The inquest panel will revisit the case if the prosecutors decide again not to
file charges against Ozawa or fail to come to a decision within three months.
If the panel decides again in favor of indictment with a majority of more than
eight members, a team of court-appointed lawyers will act as prosecutors and
file criminal charges against Ozawa, according to the inquest of prosecution
law.
The inquest panel reached the decision during closed-door deliberations acting
on a complaint filed by a citizens group against the prosecutors' earlier
decision not to indict Ozawa. The group had filed an accusation against Ozawa
with the prosecutors alleging violation of the political funds control law.
Ozawa, 67, who headed the DPJ between 2006 and 2009, is regarded as the most
powerful figure in the ruling party. Ozawa's successor as DPJ leader, Yukio
Hatoyama, picked Ozawa as party secretary general following the DPJ's sweeping
victory in the 2009 election for the House of Representatives.
Tuesday's decision came a day after the announcement of a separate inquest
committee's determination that a decision by prosecutors not to indict Prime
Minister Hatoyama over the false reporting of funds by his political bodies
from 2004 to 2008 was appropriate.
In February, the prosecutors decided not to charge Ozawa, citing a lack of
evidence, after questioning him twice in January.
They indicted then DPJ House of Representatives member Tomohiro Ishikawa, 36, a
former secretary of Ozawa, for misreporting funds at Ozawa's Rikuzankai fund
management body. Ishikawa left the party after being indicted.
The prosecutors also charged Takanori Okubo, 48, a former state-financed
secretary to Ozawa, and Mitsutomo Ikeda, 32, another former secretary of Ozawa.
According to the indictment, Ozawa's Rikuzankai fund management body failed to
book in its 2004 funds report income of 545 million yen, including 400 million
yen borrowed from Ozawa, as well as around 352 million yen used to buy land in
Tokyo, and the three were responsible for the misreporting.
In Tuesday's decision, the inquest panel said, ''A conspiracy (between Ozawa
and Ishikawa) is strongly suspected.''
It also said Ozawa's deeds are unforgivable from the standpoint of ordinary
citizens, posing a question, ''Is it OK that a politician's criminal
responsibility is overlooked if that politician says he or she leaves the
matter up to secretaries?''
In Japan, prosecutors monopolize the authority to file or not file criminal
charges.
A committee for the inquest of prosecution is set up at all of the country's
district courts to review prosecutorial decisions not to file indictments,
usually acting on complaints mainly from victims of crime or their relatives.
Two or more such panels are established at larger district courts such as those
in Tokyo and Osaka.
Under the revised inquest of prosecution law that came into force in May last
year, indictments are mandatory if an inquest panel decides twice that the
accused should be indicted.
A former deputy head of a police station was the first to be indicted under the
scheme when he was charged last week with negligence for allegedly failing to
prevent a fatal stampede in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, in 2001.
Last Friday, three former presidents of West Japan Railway Co. were indicted by
a team of three court-appointed lawyers over a 2005 train derailment that
claimed the lives of 107 people.
==Kyodo
2010-04-27 23:58:14
The 11 citizens who form the Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of
Prosecution voted unanimously in favor of the decision, judicial sources said.
Following the decision, Ozawa said he will remain in his post. ''I believe the
investigative authorities will make an appropriate judgment in the end,'' he
told reporters.
But Ozawa is expected to face renewed calls for his resignation from the ruling
party's No. 2 post.
Given the panel decision, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office will
reinvestigate the case.
The inquest panel will revisit the case if the prosecutors decide again not to
file charges against Ozawa or fail to come to a decision within three months.
If the panel decides again in favor of indictment with a majority of more than
eight members, a team of court-appointed lawyers will act as prosecutors and
file criminal charges against Ozawa, according to the inquest of prosecution
law.
The inquest panel reached the decision during closed-door deliberations acting
on a complaint filed by a citizens group against the prosecutors' earlier
decision not to indict Ozawa. The group had filed an accusation against Ozawa
with the prosecutors alleging violation of the political funds control law.
Ozawa, 67, who headed the DPJ between 2006 and 2009, is regarded as the most
powerful figure in the ruling party. Ozawa's successor as DPJ leader, Yukio
Hatoyama, picked Ozawa as party secretary general following the DPJ's sweeping
victory in the 2009 election for the House of Representatives.
Tuesday's decision came a day after the announcement of a separate inquest
committee's determination that a decision by prosecutors not to indict Prime
Minister Hatoyama over the false reporting of funds by his political bodies
from 2004 to 2008 was appropriate.
In February, the prosecutors decided not to charge Ozawa, citing a lack of
evidence, after questioning him twice in January.
They indicted then DPJ House of Representatives member Tomohiro Ishikawa, 36, a
former secretary of Ozawa, for misreporting funds at Ozawa's Rikuzankai fund
management body. Ishikawa left the party after being indicted.
The prosecutors also charged Takanori Okubo, 48, a former state-financed
secretary to Ozawa, and Mitsutomo Ikeda, 32, another former secretary of Ozawa.
According to the indictment, Ozawa's Rikuzankai fund management body failed to
book in its 2004 funds report income of 545 million yen, including 400 million
yen borrowed from Ozawa, as well as around 352 million yen used to buy land in
Tokyo, and the three were responsible for the misreporting.
In Tuesday's decision, the inquest panel said, ''A conspiracy (between Ozawa
and Ishikawa) is strongly suspected.''
It also said Ozawa's deeds are unforgivable from the standpoint of ordinary
citizens, posing a question, ''Is it OK that a politician's criminal
responsibility is overlooked if that politician says he or she leaves the
matter up to secretaries?''
In Japan, prosecutors monopolize the authority to file or not file criminal
charges.
A committee for the inquest of prosecution is set up at all of the country's
district courts to review prosecutorial decisions not to file indictments,
usually acting on complaints mainly from victims of crime or their relatives.
Two or more such panels are established at larger district courts such as those
in Tokyo and Osaka.
Under the revised inquest of prosecution law that came into force in May last
year, indictments are mandatory if an inquest panel decides twice that the
accused should be indicted.
A former deputy head of a police station was the first to be indicted under the
scheme when he was charged last week with negligence for allegedly failing to
prevent a fatal stampede in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, in 2001.
Last Friday, three former presidents of West Japan Railway Co. were indicted by
a team of three court-appointed lawyers over a 2005 train derailment that
claimed the lives of 107 people.
==Kyodo
2010-04-27 23:58:14
