ID :
160966
Mon, 02/14/2011 - 17:44
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https://www.oananews.org//node/160966
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DPJ executives move to suspend Ozawa's party membership
TOKYO, Feb. 14 Kyodo - Executives of the Democratic Party of Japan on Monday moved to suspend the party membership of former leader Ichiro Ozawa, who has been indicted over a funds scandal, until after the end of his trial which is expected to begin this summer or later.
DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada said following the party's executive meeting that some opposed the punishment but calls for suspending Ozawa's membership eventually prevailed. The board has now handed the matter to the party's Standing Officers Council which will meet Tuesday to give the go-ahead to the punishment.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who attended the ruling party's executive board meeting, told reporters later that the punitive action is the ''DPJ's way of putting its foot down'' on the case of Ozawa.
Okada said the Ozawa case ''poses a challenge for us to fulfill our responsibility as a publicly recognized political party.'' He added the DPJ decided to go ahead with the punitive action, looking at the gravity over the indictment of Ozawa, a lawmaker of the House of Representatives.
Okada also said the board took into account Ozawa's refusal to heed calls from the party to testify over the scandal before a parliamentary ethics panel, as well as the indictment of his three former secretaries in connection with falsely reporting his political funds.
Ozawa, a longtime power broker in Japanese politics, was himself indicted in late January over accounting irregularities involving his political funds body. Denying any wrongdoing, he has vowed to stay on as a DPJ lawmaker and refused to testify at the Diet, saying his case will be fought out in court and his innocence should be proven there.
Okada said the party will decide on whether to extend or revoke the suspension depending on the outcome of Ozawa's trial.
The maximum period of suspending a member under the party's code of ethics is six months, but since the party cannot predict how long the trial will last, it has decided to make an exception by suspending Ozawa's membership until the court makes a decision on his case, Okada said.
A suspended DPJ politician is not allowed to attend formal party functions and could fail to get on the party's ticket in elections.
The DPJ had no choice but to begin the process of finalizing punitive action after Ozawa spurned Kan's call to leave the party voluntarily during their one-to-one meeting Thursday.
The latest decision by the executives is expected to intensify an already conspicuous internal rift between anti- and pro-Ozawa DPJ members, at a time when the Kan administration needs to secure party unity to help it pass the fiscal 2011 budget and budget-related bills in a divided Diet.
But Okada played down its possible impact on party unity, saying both sides need to ''make efforts to avoid a rift'' and that the DPJ has a duty to the public to explain the scandal.
Among the 15 on the DPJ executive board, members close to Ozawa including Azuma Koshiishi, head of the party's caucus in the upper house, protested that imposing punishment should wait until after a court ruling but Kan's approval of the suspension prevailed.
Given that pro-Ozawa lawmakers were present during Monday's executive board meeting, the punishment is not expected to be overruled during the rest of the necessary process and will likely receive endorsement from the DPJ's ethics committee as well as its Standing Officers Council.
The media have been keeping close tabs on how the Kan government, facing low public support, handles the Ozawa case since it is linked to the issue of money-tainted politics that Kan has promised to eradicate.
The government and ruling party are keen to put an end to the Ozawa issue so they can focus on securing the cooperation of opposition parties in passing the fiscal 2011 budget. The opposition bloc has used the Ozawa scandal to attack the Kan administration.
Ozawa was indicted on charges of conspiring with three of his former aides not to record 400 million yen lent to his Rikuzankai political fund management body in its report for 2004 and listing roughly 340 million yen used to purchase land in a 2005 funds report, when it should have been included in the report for 2004.
DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada said following the party's executive meeting that some opposed the punishment but calls for suspending Ozawa's membership eventually prevailed. The board has now handed the matter to the party's Standing Officers Council which will meet Tuesday to give the go-ahead to the punishment.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who attended the ruling party's executive board meeting, told reporters later that the punitive action is the ''DPJ's way of putting its foot down'' on the case of Ozawa.
Okada said the Ozawa case ''poses a challenge for us to fulfill our responsibility as a publicly recognized political party.'' He added the DPJ decided to go ahead with the punitive action, looking at the gravity over the indictment of Ozawa, a lawmaker of the House of Representatives.
Okada also said the board took into account Ozawa's refusal to heed calls from the party to testify over the scandal before a parliamentary ethics panel, as well as the indictment of his three former secretaries in connection with falsely reporting his political funds.
Ozawa, a longtime power broker in Japanese politics, was himself indicted in late January over accounting irregularities involving his political funds body. Denying any wrongdoing, he has vowed to stay on as a DPJ lawmaker and refused to testify at the Diet, saying his case will be fought out in court and his innocence should be proven there.
Okada said the party will decide on whether to extend or revoke the suspension depending on the outcome of Ozawa's trial.
The maximum period of suspending a member under the party's code of ethics is six months, but since the party cannot predict how long the trial will last, it has decided to make an exception by suspending Ozawa's membership until the court makes a decision on his case, Okada said.
A suspended DPJ politician is not allowed to attend formal party functions and could fail to get on the party's ticket in elections.
The DPJ had no choice but to begin the process of finalizing punitive action after Ozawa spurned Kan's call to leave the party voluntarily during their one-to-one meeting Thursday.
The latest decision by the executives is expected to intensify an already conspicuous internal rift between anti- and pro-Ozawa DPJ members, at a time when the Kan administration needs to secure party unity to help it pass the fiscal 2011 budget and budget-related bills in a divided Diet.
But Okada played down its possible impact on party unity, saying both sides need to ''make efforts to avoid a rift'' and that the DPJ has a duty to the public to explain the scandal.
Among the 15 on the DPJ executive board, members close to Ozawa including Azuma Koshiishi, head of the party's caucus in the upper house, protested that imposing punishment should wait until after a court ruling but Kan's approval of the suspension prevailed.
Given that pro-Ozawa lawmakers were present during Monday's executive board meeting, the punishment is not expected to be overruled during the rest of the necessary process and will likely receive endorsement from the DPJ's ethics committee as well as its Standing Officers Council.
The media have been keeping close tabs on how the Kan government, facing low public support, handles the Ozawa case since it is linked to the issue of money-tainted politics that Kan has promised to eradicate.
The government and ruling party are keen to put an end to the Ozawa issue so they can focus on securing the cooperation of opposition parties in passing the fiscal 2011 budget. The opposition bloc has used the Ozawa scandal to attack the Kan administration.
Ozawa was indicted on charges of conspiring with three of his former aides not to record 400 million yen lent to his Rikuzankai political fund management body in its report for 2004 and listing roughly 340 million yen used to purchase land in a 2005 funds report, when it should have been included in the report for 2004.
