OSAKA -- The Osaka High Public Prosecutors Office on March 19 decided not to indict a local assistant prosecutor over allegations they leaked investigative information to their superior accused of raping a subordinate.

The assistant prosecutor at the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office is cleared of four charges including a confidentiality breach in violation of the National Public Service Act and defamation in connection with the sexual assault case, in which Kentaro Kitagawa, 65, former head of the same office, is accused of raping a female subordinate.

The assistant prosecutor had joined a gathering attended by Kitagawa and the victim shortly before the alleged sexual assault. The woman subsequently filed a complaint against the assistant prosecutor for leaking investigative information to Kitagawa.

The Osaka High Public Prosecutors Office explained that the assistant prosecutor "accessed the (investigative) information not on duty but in a private capacity," denying their act constituted a National Public Service Act violation. In regard to defamation charges, the prosecutors' office stated that "the information was not passed on to a large number of unspecified individuals, and the assistant prosecutor was not aware of that, either."

Meanwhile, the high public prosecutors' office recognized that the assistant prosecutor shared information on the victim with third parties among other inappropriate language and behavior, and revealed that it had admonished the prosecutor on disciplinary grounds.

Tsunekazu Kobashi, deputy superintending prosecutor at the Osaka High Public Prosecutors Office, commented, "We have meted out strict punishment against the assistant prosecutor for their behavior that undermined trust in prosecutorial organizations."

A lawyer representing the woman released a comment saying, "She is suffering secondary damage due to the assistant prosecutor's speech and behavior. It is unacceptable that they have dropped charges against the prosecutor and just admonished them. It was a punishment lenient to an insider."

(Japanese original by Shunsuke Takara, Osaka City News Department)