No Decision to Resume Kickbacks by Abe Faction Execs: Seko
Tokyo, April 21 (Jiji Press)--The then executives of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's intraparty faction led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not decide to resume cash kickbacks to faction members at their meeting in August 2022, Hiroshige Seko, one of the four former executives, testified Monday.
"I don't understand that (the kickback resumption) was decided (at the meeting)," Seko, also former LDP secretary-general in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of Japan's parliament, said in his unsworn testimony before the Upper House Budget Committee over the slush fund scandal with the now-defunct Abe faction at the center.
"Our consensus was that there should never be cash kickbacks," he stressed.
After quitting the LDP, Seko now sits in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber.
The kickbacks to member lawmakers who sold tickets for fundraising events more than required by the faction were abolished by Abe in April 2022 but revived in August the same year.
(2025/04/21-17:27)
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