Abe avoids criminal responsibility for’cherry blossom scandal’… Japanese prosecutor and secretary only briefly prosecuted

On the 24th, Abe closes the case with an unprosecution.
“There is no evidence such as competition”… Criticism of’cutting the tail’

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [이미지출처=EPA연합뉴스]

[아시아경제 정현진 기자] Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was accused of violating the Political Fund Regulation Act, was subject to an unprosecution on the 24th. This is because there is no evidence that the Prime Minister has directly intervened, such as conspiring on accounting processing, in connection with inviting local residents to a luxury hotel in Tokyo to provide entertainment in line with the government-sponsored “Cherry Blossom Meeting” held every spring. The Japanese prosecutors faced criticism that they conducted an investigation of care while concluding the case in a’cutting the tail’ style by briefly prosecuting only former Prime Minister Abe’s secretary.

According to NHK Broadcasting, Japan’s Tokyo District Prosecutors’ Office issued a disprosecution against former Prime Minister Abe on this day and briefly prosecuted the public official Hiroyuki Haikawa, who served as the representative of the “Shinzo Abe Support Group,” for violating the Political Fund Regulation Act. Former Prime Minister Abe was accused of this last May.

Former Prime Minister Abe held a support meeting the following year from 2013 to last year, and held a eve of the night before the government’s “Cherry Blossom Meeting” event held every April, and invited supporters of his local ward, Yamaguchi Prefecture, to dinner. Conducted the event. During this process, participants received only a small participation fee and the rest was preserved by the former Prime Minister Abe, but was charged with not writing it in the political fund balance report of the sponsorship submitted to the Election Commission.

It is reported that the total amount of money Abe spent from 2015 to last year in this manner amounted to 9 million yen (about 96 million won). In response to this, the Tokyo District Prosecutors’ Office conducted an investigation based on the four-year income report from 2016 to last year, considering the expiration of the period to keep the income and expenditure reports for events prior to 2015. After that, he applied the charge of not including a total of 30 million yen in the income report to Secretary Haikawa.

In addition, the Tokyo District Prosecutors’ Office of Special Affairs confirmed the charges accused of preserving the difference in an investigation into officials at the Abe office, and investigated the involvement of former Prime Minister Abe on the 21st. However, foreign media reported that Abe claimed that he did not know about the facts that he did not include, and that in the end, the prosecution decided that it was difficult to hold criminal responsibility for this and brought an unprosecution. The Special Ministry said, “The accounting process was the only local office and there was no evidence of conspiring or grasping the facts that former Prime Minister Abe did not provide.”

In connection with this case, former Prime Minister Abe has been criticized for the prosecution’s conclusion that only the secretary concerned was briefly prosecuted while receiving an unprosecution. Opposition parties are also expected to continue their backlash.

As the controversy grew, Japanese politics decided to set up a position for former Prime Minister Abe to come to the National Assembly and explain it on the 25th. It is to be explained by the council members’ steering committees of both the Chinese and the Chinese House, or the board of directors of the operating committee. The Asahi Shimbun quoted Abe’s aide and said that this afternoon, former Prime Minister Abe himself would meet with reporters in person and explain.

Reporter Jeong Hyun-jin [email protected]