Katsuyuki Kawai, a former Justice Minister in Japan received on Friday a three-year jail term for vote-buying in an attempt to get Anri, his wife elected to a national office.
Kawai, 58, was found guilty of charges that he shared 29 million yen ($260,000 at recent rates) to about 100 people in 2019, to help secure an upper house seat for his wife Anri, national broadcaster NHK reported.
He was fined 1.3 million yen ($11,800) in addition to the jail term.
Kawai, who was a close confidant of Shinzo Abe, a former Prime Minister had changed his earlier claims of innocence and broadly admitted to the allegations against him.
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Anri, who won her seat in the July 2019 election, has already been found guilty over her role in the scheme and received a suspended sentence of 16 months earlier in 2021.
Local media reported that Kawai appealed his sentence, though it has not been suspended.
In 2019, Kawai was named a Justice Minsiter by Abe, however, he (Kawai) left the office when the allegations emerged.
The headquarters of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party reportedly provided 150 million yen to Anri’s election campaign, an unusually large sum to boost campaign efforts.
