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2ND LD: Court grants bail for ex-Livedoor head Horie, prosecutors protest+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, April 26_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING WITH PROSECUTORS' APPEAL AGAINST BAIL DECISION) The Tokyo District Court decided Wednesday to release former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie, who has been indicted for corporate accounting fraud, on bail of 300 million yen. But the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office appealed against the decision later in the day, leading the court to put his release on hold. The court will examine the appeal with different judges. Horie will be kept in custody until the judges reach a decision, court officials said. Horie, 33, in detention since his arrest Jan. 23, paid the money immediately after the district court decided to let him leave the Tokyo Detention House, the officials said. It is rare for legal authorities in Japan to allow a person who has been denying a charge to go free before the first hearing of his or her trial is held. The court is believed to have judged that Horie could not destroy evidence related to the case, given that prosecutors and his lawyers have begun procedures to clarify the main issues in the upcoming trial. Horie's lawyers first made a demand for his release on bail on Feb. 16 and again on March 14. The two requests were denied and the lawyers filed a third request on April 10. The court also decided Wednesday to hold a meeting on May 10 with the lawyers and the prosecutors to arrange the schedule of his trial. Horie and four other Livedoor executives, as well as the once high-flying Internet company itself, are accused of inflating financial figures to make it appear that the firm had a group pretax profit of 5 billion yen for the year through September 2004, though it actually had a pretax loss of some 300 million yen in the period. The four, including former Livedoor Chief Financial Officer Ryoji Miyauchi and former Livedoor Representative Director Fumito Kumagai, have already been released on bail. All except Kumagai are also accused of spreading false financial information in 2004 about the takeover of a publisher by Livedoor Marketing Co., then known as ValueClick Japan Inc. The court decided Wednesday that their first hearing will be on May 26. Two accountants, Motoshi Kobayashi and Taishin Hisano, who were indicted in March on charges of colluding with the Livedoor executives, will also go on this trial the same day, the court officials said. |