Authorities intend not to prosecute 100 people who received cash from former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai, who has been charged with vote-buying and other violations of the Public Offices Election Law in a bribery scandal involving the July 2019 House of Councillors election.
Most of the 100 people -- including local politicians -- who are accused of violating the law by accepting cash from Kawai, 58, are likely to have their prosecution suspended. Among them are politicians who were given millions in cash, and it is quite unusual for people who have taken so much money to be exempted from prosecution.
In its ruling on June 18, the Tokyo District Court acknowledged that Kawai distributed a total of about 28.7 million yen to 100 people from March to August 2019. His aim was to secure votes for his wife, Anri, who ran in the upper house election from the Hiroshima Constituency as an official candidate of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Anri, 47, was sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for five years, and her sentence has been finalized. The court also accepted some charges of conspiracy between Kawai and Anri, and sentenced Kawai to three years' imprisonment and a fine of 1.3 million yen. He has appealed the ruling.
The person who took the most from Kawai was a secretary to a former Diet member elected from Hiroshima Prefecture, receiving 3 million yen, the ruling said. A veteran member of the prefectural assembly who was once its speaker received a total of 2 million yen from the couple, while a former mayor of an eastern city in the prefecture got 1.5 million yen from Kawai.
About a dozen people received at least 500,000 yen each. Of the 100 people who accepted money, 40 are local politicians, who each received at least 100,000 yen.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office recognized that the actions of the 100 people constituted the crime of accepting a bribe, according to informed sources. However, the prosecutors appears to have decided that they do not need to assume criminal responsibility based on such factors as the cash being pressed upon them by Kawai, who had been repeatedly elected to the House of Representatives and had great political influence.
The Public Offices Election Law prohibits people from receiving cash and other gifts if they are aware that they are aimed at buying votes. It stipulates a penalty of three years or less in jail, or a fine of 500,000 yen or less for violators.
A civic organization in Hiroshima and others submitted a criminal complaint to prosecutors, accusing the 100 people of having taken bribes.
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