Citizen panel nixes decision not to indict Hagiuda’s secretary

A Japanese panel of citizens has voted against a decision by prosecutors not to indict a former secretary of lawmaker Koichi Hagiuda over a slush funds scandal embroiling the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
It is unreasonable not to prosecute the then-secretary because of the maliciousness of the acts, the panel for the inquest of prosecution said.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office will reinvestigate the case and consider again whether to seek criminal punishment.
The same inquest panel in Tokyo had also voted against a decision not to indict a man who was the chief accountant for a political organization of lawmaker Hiroshige Seko over the scandal.
Hagiuda and several others, including the chief accountant of a political group he heads, were slapped with criminal complaints accusing them of violating the political funds control law mainly by failing to record a total of ¥27.28 million in political funds reports between 2018 and 2022. The funds were kickbacks from the LDP faction once led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In May this year, the Tokyo prosecutor’s office decided not to indict any of them or the then-secretary, who was investigated separately.
The inquest panel said that the then-secretary sold tickets of political fundraising parties held by the former Abe faction and supervised Hagiuda’s parliamentary and local offices while intentionally failing to report the kickbacks to the chief accountant.
The unstated amount of ¥27.28 million is extremely high by generally accepted standards, the panel said, adding that the then-secretary ought to be held criminally responsible.
Hagiuda and others slapped with criminal complaints, for their part, have received an inquest panel judgment approving prosecutors’ decision not to indict them.