Inappropriate Investigation of Public Prosecutors

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office admitted on Monday that the investigation by the public prosecutors in Special Investigation Division of Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on the major bribery case in the election of House of Councillors in Hiroshima district in 2019 was inappropriate. SPPO found that a prosecutor in charge of interview to a member of Hiroshima City Assembly, who was suspected as receiving bribery, indicated non-indictment to draw a confession. A part of excessive investigation in a closed room of the public prosecutors office was revealed. 

Former member of House of Representatives, Katsuyuki Kawai, distributed bribes to the assembly members of Hiroshima city for the election campaign of his wife, Anri Kawai. One of the assemble members, Tsuneyasu Kido, who received ¥300 thousand from Kawai, argued that he had been forced by a prosecutor to admit the bribery on the basis of non-indictment. Kido revealed his recorded dialogue with the prosecutor.

 

As the result of interviews to the prosecutors, SPPO found that the prosecutor had made Kido expect non-indictment. “I hope you to continue your job as an assembly member, if possible,” told the prosecutor to Kido in the interview. The prosecutor also told that he could not promise non-indictment. SPPO concluded that the prosecutor did not promise non-indictment of Kido and not coerced false statement.

 

The prosecutors office had made “witness tests,” in which the prosecutors examine what Kido would say in the trial in advance. In the test, the prosecutor told Kido not to reveal the prepared draft for the statement. SPPO recognized the prosecutor’s instruction as lacking careful explanation on the meaning of the instruction, but denied organizational order to draw confession about bribery.

 

Katsuyuki Kawai was arrested in 2020 with suspect of bribing with money for collecting votes in the election. As the result of prosecutors’ investigation, about one hundred local politicians, who had been suspected to have received bribes, were not actually indicted. Some defendants in the trial argued that the investigation had been made inappropriately.

It is not easy for the prosecutors to collect evidences in the political scandals. The difficulty may force the prosecutors to make coercive investigation against the witnesses, including plea bargain. But once the investigation goes excessive way, the credibility for the prosecutors will significantly be eroded.

 

Not to repeat that inappropriate investigation again, SPPO stressed the necessity of further education on the prosecutors as efforts of the prosecutors office as a whole. To achieve social justice, especially to keep an eye on illicit activities of politicians, the public prosecutors need to abide by the law with modesty.