The mystery over a 100 million yen political funds scandal deepened Monday as a former secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party appeared in court claiming an alibi: He was not at a meeting where the covert donation was allegedly handed over to an LDP faction on July 2, 2001.
Hiromu Nonaka, an 80-year-old former Lower House member, denied at the Tokyo District Court that he attended the meeting at Koetsu, a restaurant in Tokyo's Akasaka district.
The Japan Dental Association allegedly gave the money to former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, who headed what was then the LDP's largest faction, but the donation was not reported in the faction's annual funds report in violation of the Political Funds Control Law, a scandal that has continued to roil national politics.