Two former senior prosecutors were handed suspended 18-month prison sentences Friday for covering up evidence-tampering by a subordinate who was trying to implicate a senior health ministry bureaucrat in a postal discount system abuse scam.
The wrongfully charged bureaucrat was acquitted.
Convicted Friday by the Osaka District Court were Hiromichi Otsubo, 58, former head of the elite investigative team at the Osaka District Public Prosecutor's Office, and his former deputy, Motoaki Saga, 51. Their sentences were suspended for three years.