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On March 10, the Tokyo District
Court dismissed a libel suit filed against the Soka Gakkai
by Daito Asaki, the husband of the late Higashi Murayama
City assemblywoman Akiyo Asaki; their daughter, Naoko;
and Assemblyman Hozumi Yano.
The plaintiffs charged that their reputation had been
defamed when the Soka Gakkai youth’s bi-weekly newspaper,
Soka Shimpo, published an article on a Tokyo public prosecutors
office report that concluded Mrs. Asaki's death was a
suicide. The District Court ruled that the public prosecutor
had not violated any law by publicizing the results of
his investigation, while the Soka Gakkai had “substantial
reason to believe that it was reporting the facts”
in the Soka Shimpo article.
Assemblywoman Asaki jumped to her death in July 1995,
and subsequent police and public prosecutors office reports
concluded that it was a suicide.
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