OSAKA -- A former gangster was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison for bribing a senior official of the Osaka High Public Prosecutor's Office.

The Osaka District Court ruled that Tadamitsu Tomari, 40, spent some 280,000 yen entertaining Tamaki Mitsui, 58, in nightclubs and other places in June and July 2001 in return for information on the prosecutor's investigation into another gangster.

Presiding Judge Yoshihisa Denda said, "It was a crime of improper collusion between a prosecutor and a person linked to gangsters and damaged prosecutors' impartiality and justice."

Tomari, a former member of the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate, admitted to the charges.

But Mitsui, on trial on bribery and other charges, has pleaded not guilty.

He is claiming his arrest was unlawful and was designed to prevent him from accusing other senior prosecutors in Osaka of misusing expenses.

Mitsui was arrested in April shortly before he was to go public in a TV interview with allegations that prosecutors raised off-the-book funds and illegally used investigative money.

Mitsui's defense team held a news conference after the ruling, saying the court's decision will not affect his trial.

They said an interview with Mitsui has still been prohibited, and that he is mentally exhausted from his long detention.