Tokyo prosecutors on Friday appealed a lower court ruling that found the chief defense attorney for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara not guilty of obstructing the compulsory seizure of rental income used by a client as collateral in the 1990s.
Yoshihiro Yasuda was cleared Wednesday of charges of conspiring with the client, the president of a real estate company, and his son to conceal about 200 million yen in rental income by directing tenants of two buildings in Tokyo's Minato Ward to pay their rent to dummy companies between 1993 and 1996.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office had sought a maximum two years in prison for Yasuda, a well-known human rights lawyer and opponent of Japan's death penalty, at the Tokyo District Court trial.