Hyogo governor likely behind whistleblower info leak, says panel
The personal information of a whistleblower in Hyogo Prefecture was likely leaked under the instructions of Gov. Motohiko Saito and former Vice Gov. Yasutaka Katayama, according to a report released by the prefecture's third-party investigative committee on Tuesday.
The committee found that a former head of the prefectural government's general affairs department provided prefectural assembly members with information about the whistleblower, a former prefectural government official who distributed a document containing harassment allegations against Saito and died last July.
According to the report, the Hyogo government found the whistleblower's personal information on an official computer during its probe into the document last March.
The following month, the former department head showed three Hyogo prefectural assembly members some printed materials regarding the personal information and gave oral explanations to them.
After interviewing those involved, the committee concluded that the former department head highly likely leaked the information to assembly members under the instructions of Saito and Katayama.
According to the report, Saito told the third-party panel that he thinks he was informed of the whistleblower's personal information but did not issue any instructions on how to handle it.
The governor said that he believes the former department head shared the information with the assembly side at the former head's own discretion.
On Tuesday, the Hyogo government suspended the former department head for three months for leaking the information.
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