A prosecution inquest committee said April 26 it has decided that the decision by prosecutors not to indict Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama over allegedly false reporting of political donations by his fund management bodies from 2004 to 2008 was appropriate.

The panel of 11 citizens selected by lottery reached the decision April 21 in closed-door consultations after a citizens' group filed a complaint against the prosecutors' decision not to indict the prime minister.

It is the first decision of its kind involving a sitting prime minister.

The panel said it reached the decision because no one related to the case except a former secretary to Hatoyama had knowledge about the false reporting of the funds. The panel also couldn't find a reason why Hatoyama would deliberately take part.

The decision came after the Tokyo District Court's decision April 22 to sentence Keiji Katsuba, 59, the former government-paid secretary of Hatoyama, to two years in prison, suspended for three years, for falsifying political funding reports at the prime minister's fund management and political organizations.

Kyodo News