prosecutors ask Ozawa to be questioned again over funding reports+

TOKYO, May 12 Kyodo -
Prosecutors asked Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa to
submit to questioning after an independent judicial panel decided last month
that he merits indictment over his fund management body's alleged false
reporting of political funds in 2004 and 2005, sources familiar with the matter
said Wednesday.
Ozawa, meanwhile, is considering explaining the case at the Deliberative
Council on Political Ethics at the House of Representatives amid continuing
calls for him to do so from the opposition camp, senior DPJ officials said.
If he complies with the prosecutors' request, it would be the third time Ozawa
has been questioned on a voluntary basis over the suspected violation of the
Political Funds Control Law, following earlier sessions on Jan. 23 and 31.
The funds scandal is regarded as having pushed down public support ratings for
the government, though Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama simply said Wednesday it
is for Ozawa himself to decide whether to respond to the prosecutors' request.
Hatoyama said that Ozawa, his predecessor as DPJ chief, should be given credit
for leading the DPJ to victory in last year's general election and for managing
the party well with his ''outstanding skills.''
Ozawa has come under renewed pressure since the panel, the Tokyo No. 5
Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, made the decision unanimously on
April 27, opening the way for the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office to
reinvestigate the case.
In February, the prosecutors decided not to charge Ozawa, citing lack of
evidence, after questioning him twice as a suspect based on a criminal
complaint filed by a civic group.
The inquest panel will revisit the case, which involves the purchase of land in
Tokyo, 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, a team of court-appointed
lawyers will act as prosecutors and file criminal charges against Ozawa,
according to the inquest of prosecution law.
The former DPJ chief is regarded as the most powerful figure in the ruling
party, despite his official capacity as its No. 2 man.
In relation to the misreporting by Ozawa's fund management body, Rikuzankai,
prosecutors indicted then DPJ House of Representatives member Tomohiro
Ishikawa, a former secretary of Ozawa, on charges of violating the Political
Funds Control Law. Ishikawa left the party after being indicted.
The prosecutors also charged Takanori Okubo, a former state-financed secretary
to Ozawa, and Mitsutomo Ikeda, another former secretary of Ozawa.
The prosecutors may ask all or some of them to be questioned again to clarify
if they and their former boss acted as accomplices in the case, the sources
said.
Based on the former secretaries' earlier depositions that they had explained to
Ozawa about the funds reports before submitting them to the government, the
inquest panel concluded it was ''very likely'' that Ozawa conspired with the
former secretaries over the false reports.
According to the indictment against the former secretaries, they failed to list
the 400 million yen Rikuzankai borrowed from Ozawa in the group's 2004 report
and the same amount of money repaid to him in the 2007 report.
They also failed to list the 352 million yen spent to purchase the Tokyo land
in the 2004 report and erroneously entered the expenditure of the same amount
in the 2005 report, according to the prosecutors.
Following the decision by the Tokyo No. 5 inquest panel on the alleged false
reports in 2004 and 2005, the Tokyo No. 1 inquest panel is expected to decide
on the 2007 report in the near future. The two panels are handling the matters
separately as the prosecutors decided not to indict Ozawa on Feb. 23 over the
2007 report, following a similar decision Feb. 4 over the 2004 and 2005
reports.
==Kyodo
2010-05-12 22:52:08


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