Court grants 15 mil. yen bail to Ozawa's aide Okubo+

TOKYO, May 25 Kyodo -
The Tokyo District Court granted bail of 15 million yen on Monday to former
Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa's secretary Takanori Okubo,
who has been indicted over a political funds scandal, but the decision
immediately prompted action from prosecutors to reverse it.

Following the court's decision, Okubo, 47, paid the full amount of bail money,
but the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office demanded the court revoke the
decision in a bid to prevent his release. The district court is expected to
respond to the prosecutors' move on Tuesday or later.
Defense lawyers for Okubo, who was treasurer of Ozawa's fund management body
Rikuzankai, applied for bail last Thursday for the first time since he was
arrested on March 3 and indicted on March 24 over the scandal, which led Ozawa
to step down as leader of the main opposition party.
Okubo was indicted on charges of violating the political funds control law by
receiving 35 million yen in donations from Nishimatsu Construction Co. between
2003 and 2006 and falsely reporting them as donations from what are believed to
be dummy entities created by the general contractor.
The scandal has dealt a blow to the DPJ ahead of the House of Representatives
election that must be held by the fall and led to the replacement of Ozawa as
head of the party by Yukio Hatoyama earlier this month. Ozawa is currently
serving as the party's acting president.
Former Nishimatsu President Mikio Kunisawa, 70, who was indicted together with
Okubo, was released on bail on May 1. The first hearing in Kunisawa's trial is
set for June 19 at the Tokyo court.
==Kyodo