Chinese prosecutors have indicted a Japanese politician for carrying illegal drugs last year at an airport in the country, a source said Tuesday.
Takuma Sakuragi, 70, a member of the Inazawa Municipal Assembly in Aichi Prefecture, was taken into custody Oct. 31 after about 3 kg of illegal stimulants was allegdly found in his luggage during a baggage check at Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou. He was on his way back to Japan via Shanghai, according to Chinese authorities.
Sakuragi, officially arrested in December, has denied any wrongdoing and said he did not know his luggage contained stimulants, according to a person with knowledge of the case.
In China, smuggling 50 grams or more of illegal drugs can receive the death penalty.
Last week, Chinese authorities executed a Japanese man in his 50s for smuggling stimulants.
He was the fifth Japanese executed in China since Tokyo and Beijing normalized diplomatic relations in 1972.
Sakuragi traveled to Guangzhou in October on business for a trading company he owns.
According to Chinese investigations, the bag containing the stimulants was given to Sakuragi by a Malian man who was also arrested but told police he did not know what was inside it.
A man who gave the luggage to the Malian is still on the run.
Local police sent the case to the prosecutors in January, but the prosecutors, citing a lack of evidence, later asked the police to reinvestigate the case and find out how Sakuragi and the Malian man got the luggage.