Investigators Referred to Prosecutors over Machine Export Probes

   Tokyo, Nov. 21 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo police have sent public prosecutors papers on three people involved in criminal investigations into machinery maker Ohkawara Kakohki Co. on suspicion of making, using and destroying documents containing falsified information.
   The Metropolitan Police Department took the action Wednesday after receiving a criminal complaint that its investigations into the Yokohama-based company over spray dryer exports were illegal.
   Sources said that the three suspects were allegedly involved in making a report in May 2019 on experiments on the Yokohama-based chemical machinery maker's spray dryer from which data unfavorable to building a case had been deliberately excluded.
   The three were also allegedly involved in making a former company executive sign a statement of his explanation during interrogation in March 2020, pretending to have modified it as requested by the former executive. They are also suspected of shredding the statement, according to the sources.
   At Ohkawara Kakohki, the MPD arrested three executives in violation of the foreign exchange law in March 2020. They were charged for exporting spray dryers that could be used for the production of biological weapons.

(2024/11/21-11:09)