Apr.21.2008 11:30TOKYO, April 21 KYODO
Former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya pleaded guilty Monday at the Tokyo District Court to taking a total of about 12.5 million yen in bribes from a defense equipment trader while serving as the top defense bureaucrat and to giving false testimony in parliament.
Motonobu Miyazaki, 69, a former executive of defense equipment trader Yamada Corp., and Osamu Akiyama, 70, a former president at Yamada's U.S. subsidiary Yamada International Corp., meanwhile, pleaded guilty to bribing Moriya, 63.
Photo: Former Defense Vice Minister Takemasa Moriya (R) emerges from his home in Shinjuku, Tokyo, on April 21, heading for the Tokyo District Court to stand trial on charges of bribe-taking and perjury in Diet testimony.Tomonari Imaji, 57, a former executive director of Yamada Corp., pleaded guilty to a charge of forging signatures on private documents and using them.
''I apologize to people for causing such crimes,'' Moriya said, admitting to the charges at the first hearing in the bribery trial at the district court.
In their opening statement, prosecutors explained how the alleged bribery developed.
According to the indictment, Moriya received a total of about 8.86 million yen worth of overnight trips, including one-day golf outings, on 120 occasions from August 2003 to April 2007 from Miyazaki as reward for giving special treatment to the trader in the procurement of defense equipment.
Moriya was serving as vice defense minister, the top defense bureaucrat, at the time.
Moriya also allegedly received $32,000, or 3.63 million yen, in cash through bank accounts of his wife and his second eldest daughter from Miyazaki from May 2004 to February 2006.
He also faces a charge of perjury for allegedly giving false parliamentary testimony in October and November last year over golf outings and receiving cash.
Miyazaki is accused of giving Moriya a total of 6.25 million yen in bribes, excluding alleged bribes for which the statute of limitations has expired.
==Kyodo
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