DPJ lawmaker, 2 others released on bail day after indictment

Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Tomohiro Ishikawa and two others were released on bail after their indictment for alleged false reporting of DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa`s political funds.

Tokyo: Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker
Tomohiro Ishikawa and two others were released on bail after
their indictment for alleged false reporting of DPJ Secretary
General Ichiro Ozawa`s political funds.

Ishikawa, who became a House of Representatives member
after serving as Ozawa`s secretary, Takanori Okubo, an
incumbent state-paid secretary for the DPJ`s No. 2, and
Mitsutomo Ikeda, a former private secretary to Ozawa, were
freed after the Tokyo District Court granted them bail
yesterday.

Ishikawa, 36, paid 12 million yen (0.10 million USD) in
bail, the highest amount among the three.They had been held
for allegedly violating the Political Funds Control Law.

The district court granted bail on condition that Okubo
and Ikeda do not contact Ozawa and that Ishikawa and Okubo do
not contact people related to Mizutani Construction Co., which
prosecutors suspect of having given secret donations to Ozawa
in connection with the case, a person close to them said.

The prosecutors allege that Ishikawa and Okubo conspired
in not booking the money flows at Ozawa`s Rikuzankai fund
body, including 400 million yen borrowed from Ozawa, for a
land purchase in Tokyo in 2004, and that Ikeda and Okubo
conspired in other false reporting in 2005 and 2007.

The prosecutors did not challenge court`s decision to
grant bail because trial of the three would only commence
after House of Councillors election this summer and it would
be difficult to keep the suspects in custody for such a long
period, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office said.

PTI

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