Ex - Minister Allegedly Deleted Data
Investigative sources have told NHK that a former Japanese justice minister apparently deleted potential evidence of vote-buying after a magazine published an article about his alleged election law violation.
Prosecutors arrested Kawai Katsuyuki and his lawmaker wife Kawai Anri on Thursday for giving cash to local politicians and others in an Upper House election in which she ran successfully last July.
The couple is suspected of giving roughly 240,000 dollars to almost 100 people to ask them to vote for her.
Investigators have found that the husband kept a list of names of people whom the couple is believed to have given the money, and how much each person received, on a computer at his office.
The data was apparently deleted after the article was published last October. It alleged that the wife's campaign team paid rewards larger than legally allowed to some of its members.
Investigators have since restored the data and found that the couple may have been involved in vote-buying.
Sources say both suspects deny the allegations.
