自民議員ら３２人の審査議決　１２日までに出欠回答―参院政倫審

　参院政治倫理審査会は８日、自民党派閥の政治資金パーティー裏金事件を受け、同党の参院議員ら３２人に対する審査の開催を全会一致で議決した。３２人に出欠の意向確認書を送付し、１２日午前１１時までに回答を求める。審査は早ければ来週後半に行われる。
　対象者は政治資金収支報告書に不記載のあった安倍、二階両派の参院議員３１人と、在宅起訴されて自民を離党した大野泰正議員。出席要請に強制力はなく、対象者の対応が焦点となる。このうち安倍派の世耕弘成前参院幹事長と西田昌司氏は既に出席する意向を示している。
　立憲民主党など野党が３２人の審査を申し立て、公開での弁明と質疑を求めている。同党の泉健太代表は８日の記者会見で「全会一致なのだから、全員出席は当然だ。公開しかあり得ない」と強調した。（2024/03/08-11:10）

A Japanese parliamentary panel on political ethics on Friday unanimously decided to hold hearings for 32 lawmakers of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the country's parliament, over a money scandal involving factions of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
   The Upper House's Deliberative Council on Political Ethics will send attendance confirmation letters to the 32 lawmakers and ask them to respond by 11 a.m. Tuesday. The hearings will take place as early as late next week.
   Asked to face the ethics panel are 31 Upper House lawmakers who belonged to LDP factions once led by late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai, respectively, and Upper House member Yasutada Ono, who left the LDP after being slapped with criminal charges over the scandal. They failed to record in political funds reports some funds such as kickbacks paid from revenues raised at fundraising parties hosted by their LDP factions.
   The attendance request is non-binding and the focus is on how the lawmakers will respond to it.
   Of the 32, Hiroshige Seko, former LDP secretary-general for the Upper House who was a senior member of the Abe faction, and Shoji Nishida have already expressed their intention to appear before the ethics panel.