The Special Investigation Team of the Tokyo Prosecutor’s Office changed its mind about bringing charges against the former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe a> in the case of bribery of voters and violation of the law on political funds. Kyodo writes about it.
Investigators have no evidence that he is guilty. Abe has already been interrogated in connection with the financing of banquets he hosted for supporters of Liberal Democratic Party and he denied any involvement in the violations.
Instead, prosecutors decided to bring charges against the senior secretary of ex-premier Hiroyuki Haikawa … He may be fined due to incorrectly completed banquet financial statements.
We are talking about dinners that were held from 2013 to 2019 for organizations of Abe’s supporters from his polling station in Yamaguchi Prefecture. They paid a fee for the food, but it was not enough, and the politician allocated at least $ 387 thousand from the funds. However, the documentation was not formatted properly.
Such payments can be regarded as a violation of the law and bribery of voters, for which they face imprisonment up to five years or a fine of $ 9.7 thousand.