案里元議員に連座制適用　選挙違反、立候補禁止―広島高裁

　河井案里元参院議員（４７）＝公選法違反罪で有罪確定、議員辞職＝陣営の選挙違反事件をめぐり、広島高検が案里元議員への連座制適用を求めた行政訴訟の判決で、広島高裁（横溝邦彦裁判長）は２１日、参院広島選挙区からの５年間立候補禁止を言い渡した。案里元議員は辞職時に出したコメントで、行政訴訟について争わない姿勢を示していた。
　事件では、案里元議員が初当選した２０１９年７月の参院選で、車上運動員に法定上限を超える報酬を支払ったとして、同法違反（買収）罪に問われた元公設秘書の有罪が昨年１２月に確定した。
　広島高検は同月、元公設秘書が「組織的選挙運動管理者」に当たるとして、案里元議員への連座制適用を求めて提訴。案里元議員は４月の第１回口頭弁論に出廷せず、答弁書も提出しなかった。
　案里元議員は２月、公選法違反罪で有罪が確定し当選が無効となり、５年間公民権が停止されている。連座制適用が確定すれば同一選挙区からの立候補が５年間禁止されるため、公民権停止期間の終了後も参院広島選挙区からは立候補できない。
　石井隆・広島高検次席検事の話　適正な判決であると考える。（2021/05/21-16:38）

A court on Friday banned former House of Councillors member Anri Kawai from running in elections for the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, from the Hiroshima prefectural constituency for five years, applying guilt-by-association rules to her over an election law violation case involving a former secretary to her.
   Hiroshima High Court gave the ruling in an administrative lawsuit filed by the Hiroshima High Public Prosecutors Office in December 2020, after the former secretary's guilty verdict in the public offices election law violation case was finalized in the same month.
   The former secretary was convicted of making payments exceeding a legal limit to staff workers for Kawai's campaign for the July 2019 Upper House election, in which she won a parliamentary seat for the first time. Kawai ran in the poll from the prefectural constituency of Hiroshima, western Japan.
   In the administrative suit, the high prosecutors office demanded that the guilt-by-association rules be applied to Kawai, 47, arguing that the former secretary was a manager of her campaign for the election.
   Kawai resigned as Upper House lawmaker on Feb. 3 this year, two days before her own guilty ruling, for vote-buying in the same Upper House poll in violation of the election law, became final. Kawai said in a statement at the time that she would not appeal against a decision in the administrative lawsuit.