In the daytime... it was Horiemon day again... 3 days of trial this week for this man and it was his 17th today.
The rain was lulled in the morn, but it brutally resumed to rain hard in the evening.
And the prosecutors arrested the ex-governor of Fukushima Pref.
in the heavy rain I was helping out my colleague reporting in front of the prosecutors' office together with the others in the same business
日中は…またホリエモンの日だった…今週は３日もあるが、きょうが１７回目の公判だった。
朝に雨は小康状態だったが、夕方には急に強雨に戻った。
そして検察官たちは福島県前知事を逮捕した。
写真：強い雨の中、検察庁の前でリポートする同僚を手伝った。同業他社も一緒だった。
(article from Kyodo below)
（以下に共同の記事・和訳は略）
◆ Ex-Fukushima Gov. Sato arrested over payoff scandal
TOKYO, Oct. 23 KYODO
Tokyo public prosecutors arrested former Fukushima Gov. Eisaku Sato on Monday for his suspected involvement in a payoff scandal over a dam construction project the prefectural government had ordered, the prosecutors said.
Sato, 67, is charged with bribe-taking benefits from Mizutani Kensetu Co., a subcontractor in the project, as the company paid in excess of 970 million yen to purchase land from a menswear maker run by the governor's brother, Yuji, 63, from August to September 2002.
The deal between Mizutani Kensetsu, based in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, and the brother's company, was made apparently as a reward to the governor's side for allegedly helping a joint venture to win the dam project in a public tender.
The joint venture of Maeda Corp., a Tokyo-based major contractor currently called Nissan Rinkai Construction Co., and a local constructor won the project at some 20.6 billion yen in bidding in August 2000.
The brother, who has been indicted over a bid rigging in a separate public works project was served a fresh arrest warrant Monday for alleged conspiracy with the former governor in the payoff scandal.
The former governor is a major shareholder of the menswear maker, Santo Suit, and had been a director of the company until May 2002.
The suspected briber is former Mizutani Kensetsu Chairman Isao Mizutani, 61, but a three-year statute of limitations has already expired on the briber's side. Mizutani has been inducted on a corporate tax evasion charge.
Maeda extended 400 million yen of loans to Santo Suit in 2001. Santo Suit paid back the debts through the profit of the land deal in question.
While Maeda officials told investigators it lent the money to Yuji as a reward for his support for winning the bidding, Yuji has denied his involvement and elder Sato's in the alleged payoff scandal, investigative sources said.
Sato resigned last month after his younger brother was arrested.
Yuji Sato was already indicted for prearranging contractor bids to help a joint venture led by Tokyu Construction Co. win the contract for a public sewage project the Fukushima prefectural government had ordered, urging other participants to offer higher prices in the bidding in August 2004.
After serving as a House of Councillors member, the elder Sato won the gubernatorial seat in 1988 and was in his fifth straight four-year term when he stepped down.
==Kyodo
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