On March 25 Obuchi had flown to Okinawa to inspect preparations for the Group of Eight Summit meeting scheduled to be held there in July, and soon after that, Mt.
Elsewhere, world number eight Petra Kvitova suffered a setback to her Australian Open preparations after going down 6-1 6-1 to Dominkia Cibulkova at the Sydney International.
Sampson said he and Gonzales had at least "five discussions" about the dismissals, including conversations during the "thinking phase" of the process, the preparations of a final list in 2006, and, ultimately, the approval of the eight prosecutors who were subsequently let go.