Prosecutors decide for 2nd time not to indict Ozawa over political funds+

TOKYO, May 21 Kyodo -
Prosecutors said Friday they have decided for a second time not to indict
Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa over his fund
management body's alleged false reporting of political funds.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office dropped the case against the
ruling party kingpin, again citing lack of evidence, despite having been urged
by an independent judicial panel to indict him.
An 11-member committee for the inquest of prosecution, which is attached to the
Tokyo District Court, would eventually look again into the prosecutors' second
non-indictment decision.
If the panel decides again in favor of indictment with the endorsement of more
than eight members, a team of court-appointed lawyers will act as prosecutors
and file criminal charges against Ozawa as stipulated in the inquest of
prosecution law.
Ozawa, who is regarded as the most powerful figure in the governing party led
by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, is considering submitting a letter to the
panel to make a case, sources close to him said.
The prosecutors' decision ''has made clear that I had no part in the case and
that I do not have a shred of suspicion,'' Ozawa, who turns 68 on Monday and is
in his 14th term as a member of the House of Representatives, said in a
statement.
Motonari Otsuru, deputy chief of the prosecutors office, said in a news
conference, ''We were unable to obtain solid evidence pointing to a conspiracy
(between Ozawa and his former aides).''
In February, the prosecutors decided not to charge Ozawa, citing lack of
evidence, after questioning him twice in January. They only imposed criminal
charges against three of his former secretaries over the Rikuzankai funds
management body's false reporting of political funds.
Among the three was DPJ House of Representatives member Tomohiro Ishikawa, 36,
who was charged with violating the political funds control law for allegedly
misreporting funds at Rikuzankai. 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 to Ozawa.
But on April 27, the Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution
decided that Ozawa merits indictment, saying a conspiracy between Ozawa and the
three is ''strongly suspected.''
Acting on the panel decision, the prosecutors relaunched the investigation on
Ozawa and questioned him for the third time on May 15. The prosecutors also
questioned lawmaker Ishikawa and the two other former secretaries.
In Japan, prosecutors monopolize the authority to file or not file criminal
charges.
Ozawa and his former secretaries all denied any conspiracy among them over the
alleged misreporting of Rikuzankai's political funds, sources familiar with the
matter said.
According to the indictment of the three, they allegedly failed to list 400
million yen of the money the Rikuzankai funds management body borrowed from
Ozawa in the organization's 2004 report and the same amount of money repaid to
him in its 2007 report.
They also allegedly failed to list the 352 million yen spent to purchase a
tract of land in Tokyo in the organization's 2004 report and erroneously
entered the expenditure of the same amount in its 2005 report, according to the
prosecutors.
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.
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.
==Kyodo
2010-05-21 23:36:51


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