Tokyo police on Thursday obtained an arrest warrant for expelled lawmaker GaaSyy for allegedly defaming and intimidating several well-known people on YouTube, investigative sources said. 

The development came only a day after GaaSyy, whose real name is Yoshikazu Higashitani, was expelled from the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, for being absent from the Diet since his electoin in July last year.

The Metropolitan Police Department sought the warrant earlier in the day on suspicion of habitual intimidation and forcible obstruction of business, according to the sources.

The police found it necessary to arrest the 51-year-old as he, who is overseas, has not responded to police requests to appear voluntarily and has continued to blackmail individuals who have filed criminal complaints against him.

The Tokyo police department, through the National Police Agency, plans to ask the Japanese Foreign Ministry to order GaaSyy to return his passport and Interpol to put him on the international wanted list.

According to the sources, GaaSyy is suspected of threatening three individuals and their families in YouTube videos between February and August last year. He is also suspected of obstructing the business of one of the three and telling the person to stop doing business. The three submitted criminal complaints by the end of the year.

The Tokyo police asked GaaSyy several times through his lawyer to accept questioning on a voluntary basis, while searching locations linked to him in January.

Based in Dubai, GaaSyy is known for his YouTube videos exposing celebrity scandals.

He won a Upper House seat in last July’s election but has refused to return to Japan, claiming that he could face “unjust detention.”

The Upper House voted Wednesday to expel him after he failed to meet its order to attend a meeting earlier this month.

JIJI Press