Liberal Democratic Party heavyweights Shizuka Kamei and the late Noboru Takeshita received bribes in return for approving public works projects, a witness testified in former Construction Minister Eiichi Nakao's bribery trial.

Masami Hayashi, the 56-year-old president of real estate broker H. R. Royal, testified Tuesday during Nakao's Tokyo District Court trial.

Hayashi is a brother-in-law of Hiroshi Ishibashi, former chairman of Wakachiku Construction Co., which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Ishibashi is alleged to have given bribes to help his company win public works contracts.

In December, Nakao, 71, pleaded guilty to taking 60 million yen in bribes from Ishibashi in 1996 when Nakao was construction minister.

Hayashi told the court that money was given to Kamei, Takeshita and Nakao, but only Nakao was arrested because he had direct authority over public works projects.

Kamei, chairman of the LDP's Policy Research Council, the party's top policymaking organ, categorically denied the allegation. He told reporters the same day that if he received such money, prosecutors should have investigated.

Takeshita, who served as prime minister from 1987 to 1989, died on June 19.

Mori sued over funds

A group including a political commentator and a constitutional expert filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors against Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, claiming the Liberal Democratic Party, which he heads, violated the Political Fund Control Law by not making clear the distribution of party funds. The ruling party failed to make clear to whom it allocated its "organization activity funds" from 1998 to 1999 when Mori was in charge of the party's accounting as secretary general, commentator Makoto Sataka, a member of the group, said Tuesday.

The LDP failed to clarify the final distribution of the money in the party's report on political funds, he said.

The LDP allocated a total of 10.6 billion yen in activity funds to senior lawmakers of each LDP faction from 1998 to 1999, of which Mori received some 1.1 billion yen, according to the complaint.

Fumio Kishida, director general of the LDP's treasury bureau, claimed the party deals with political funds appropriately based on the law and that the use of the funds is made clear in reports every year.