Ex-Abe Faction Accountant to Be Questioned Thurs.

   Tokyo, Feb. 18 (Jiji Press)--The House of Representatives Budget Committee agreed Tuesday to question on Thursday a former chief accountant of a now-defunct faction of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party over a high-profile slush funds scandal.
   Representatives from the LDP and opposition parties will question the former accountant, Junichiro Matsumoto, over the scandal.
   At the request of Matsumoto's side, the session will be held behind closed doors outside the Diet, the country's parliament, according to the agreement, reached at Tuesday's meeting of the executives of the Lower House committee. The faction was once led by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
   Jun Azumi, chairman of the Budget Committee, told reporters after the committee meeting that the questioning will be held at a hotel in Tokyo.
   Azumi also said former senior officials of the Abe faction are highly likely to have made false statements over the scandal in past hearings by the political ethics panels of the Lower House and the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, adding that he wants Matsumoto to "tell what he told investigative authorities."

(2025/02/18-13:34)

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