The Osaka District Court on Sept. 10 declared Ms. Atsuko Muraki, a former head of the welfare ministry's Equal Employment, Children and Families Bureau, innocent of a charge that she issued a fabricated certificate to recognize an organization as a group for the disabled, thus enabling it to use a postage discount system.

Although her co-defendant and witnesses had told prosecutors about her involvement during the pre-trial investigation, they withdrew their statements in hearings in and after February. On May 26, the court adopted only nine of 43 depositions presented by the prosecutors, pointing to the possibility that they used leading questions. It is outrageous that they tried to build a case in accordance with their scenario. The prosecution must examine itself and explain in concrete terms to the public what errors the prosecutors made.

The prosecution alleged that Mr. Hajime Ishii, a Democratic Party of Japan Diet member, acting on a request from a member of the organization, asked Ms. Muraki's boss for help in 2004 and that under his instruction, Ms. Muraki, then head of the section in charge of measures for the disabled, had her subordinate Mr. Tsutomu Kamimura (indicted on the same charge as she) forge a false certificate in June 2004.