Three former aides to Ichiro Ozawa on Wednesday urged the Tokyo High Court to reverse their guilty verdicts over the political money scandal involving the former Democratic Party of Japan president, saying they had no motive to conduct any wrongdoing.
The move came two days after the high court ruled in favor of Ozawa, who now heads the party Kokumin no Seikatsu ga Daiichi (People's Life First), upholding a not-guilty verdict by a lower court over his involvement in falsifying political funding reports.
Wednesday's comments were made during the opening session of the aides' appellate trial. They are Lower House member Tomohiro Ishikawa, Takanori Okubo and Mitsutomo Ikeda.
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