Prosecutors caught a break when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stepped down in mid-September for health reasons. But even with his resignation removing constitutional constraints, the investigation into Abe over the annual dinner parties held for his supporters fell apart.

That left investigators with Hiroyuki Haikawa, Abe’s state-paid aide and head of a support group, holding the bag for an amount in unreported payments that normally would not lead to charges.

But prosecutors said they decided to give Haikawa a summary indictment because his actions led to the more serious matter of Abe telling falsehoods in the Diet.

Haikawa, 61, was fined 1 million yen ($9,600) on Dec. 24 under the summary order for failing to report payments in the support group’s annual political fund reports for the hotel receptions held on the eve of cherry blossom viewing parties in Tokyo hosted by Abe.

Prosecutors began their investigation after they received criminal complaints from lawyers in May, arguing that the hotel receptions were an illegal form of donation from Abe to his constituents.

Investigators initially looked over the invoices and receipts submitted by the hotel where the receptions were held and concluded that Abe’s support group had supplemented payments for the receptions.

But prosecutors were handcuffed from taking aggressive action because a constitutional provision states that legal action cannot be taken against any state minister, including the prime minister, without the consent of the prime minister.

Prosecutors felt it would be impossible to indict a sitting prime minister. They also had to be careful about questioning those close to Abe because of the possible ramifications from such action.

After Abe left the prime minister’s post, investigators felt they had more freedom to move.

In October, prosecutors began questioning Abe’s aides as well as individuals who took part in the hotel receptions. Time was a factor because the statute of limitations for some of the annual political fund reports would end next spring.

Party guests told investigators they did not feel they got more than their money’s worth at the receptions. Those responses led prosecutors to end their pursuit of charges under the Public Offices Election Law that bans politicians from making donations to their constituents.

But prosecutors continued to look into possible violations of the Political Fund Control Law, such as failing to report payments for the hotel receptions.

Over a five-year period, the Haikawa-led support group for Abe paid about 9 million yen to supplement the expenses of the hotel receptions. Participants each paid 5,000 yen, but the total cost of the receptions was much higher.

However, prosecutors felt that failing to include the 9 million yen in the reports was insufficient to take legal action. Normally in political scandals, the amounts that do lead to indictment are in the range of tens of millions of yen or even hundreds of millions of yen.

But one high-ranking prosecutor said they decided to give Haikawa a summary indictment because his failure to report the payments led to Abe giving false statements about the expenses in the Diet. Haikawa told investigators that Abe did not know that the banquet funds were not reported, sources said.

After that decision was made, prosecutors considered whether they should question Abe himself.

They found no evidence that Abe was involved, but they decided to question him to avoid the possibility that a prosecution inquest panel could overturn the decision to not indict Abe because of an insufficient investigation.

After Abe denied any involvement to prosecutors, they felt more confident in their decision not to charge him, sources said.

With the investigation now over, one high-ranking prosecutor said: “The true nature of this case is the false responses given in the Diet (by Abe). His moral responsibility is being questioned, so this is an issue that should be debated in the Diet, not in some court.”

POSSIBLE APPEAL TO INQUEST PANEL

The lawyers who submitted the criminal complaint against Abe and his aides were clearly not pleased that the investigation ended with only a summary indictment against Haikawa.

They said they were considering submitting a request to the prosecution inquest panel to determine if the decision not to indict Abe was appropriate.

The group had 977 lawyers from around Japan submit individual criminal complaints with prosecutors against Abe and his aides.

Akira Izumisawa, one of the lawyers, said at the Dec. 24 news conference in Tokyo, “It appears that political dynamics has been working to end this cherry blossom issue this year, but we will continue with our activities next year as well.”

He said Abe should resign as a lawmaker because he “considered not only the opposition parties but also the general public to be fools who would soon forget that lies had been told” in the Diet by Abe.