Ozawa Ready to Speak before Ethics Panel over Fund Issue

Tokyo, May 12 (Jiji Press)--Japanese ruling party kingpin Ichiro
Ozawa is ready to come before a parliamentary ethics panel to speak on the
financial scandal involving his fund management body called Rikuzankai, it
was learned Wednesday.
Ozawa, secretary-general of the Democratic Party of Japan, has told
some other DPJ executives that he plans to ask the House of Representatives
Deliberative Council on Political Ethics to hold a meeting so that he can
speak on the issue, informed sources said.
He said that he is prepared to come before the Lower House panel at
any time, signaling his intention to attend a meeting of the panel during
the current regular parliamentary session, according to the sources.
Ozawa, who has come under fire over Rikuzankai's falsification of
its accounting reports relating to its acquisition of a land plot in Tokyo,
apparently judged it wise to fulfill his accountability over the scandal in
the lead-up to the House of Councillors election in summer this year.
The scandal has led to the indictment of three people, including
Tomohiro Ishikawa, a Lower House lawmaker and former Ozawa aide who quit the
DPJ.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office in February decided
not to indict Ozawa due to a lack of evidence to prove his involvement in
the falsification of the fund management reports.
But as a prosecution inquest committee in late April concluded that
Ozawa should be indicted over the affair, opposition lawmakers are demanding
he speak before the parliament.
The Social Democratic Party, one of the two coalition partners of
the DPJ, is also calling on Ozawa to speak about the issue at the Lower
House ethics panel. In addition, an increasing number of DPJ lawmakers are
urging Ozawa to fully explain about the matter.
The ethics council will be convened at the request of lawmakers
with alleged irregularities or members of the panel. Those who speak before
the panel cannot be charged with perjury even if they make untrue
statements.
END


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