The gunman accused of killing Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe pled guilty, three years after the assassination in broad daylight shocked the world.
The slaying forced a reckoning in a country with little experience of gun violence and ignited scrutiny of alleged ties between prominent conservative lawmakers and a secretive sect, the Unification Church.
“Everything is true,” Tetsuya Yamagami said at a court in the western city of Nara yesterday, admitting murder of the country’s longest-serving leader in July 2022.
The 45-year-old was led into the room by four security officials.
When the judge asked him to state his name, Yamagami, who was wearing a black T-shirt and had his long hair tied at the back, replied in a barely audible voice.
Media gaze: Journalists crowding around as a vehicle believed to be carrying Yamagami (inset) arrives at the Nara District Court. — AP
However, his lawyer said they would contest certain charges including violations of arms control laws for allegedly using a handmade weapon.
Yamagami’s trial had been a long time coming after the discovery of a suspicious item – later found to be harmless – caused its last-minute cancellation and the evacuation of the Nara court building in 2023.
One issue central to the case was whether extenuating circumstances applied due to “religious abuse” in Yamagami’s childhood stemming from his mother’s extreme devotion to the Unification Church, according to local media reports.
Yamagami reportedly resented Abe for his perceived ties to the Church, which was established in South Korea in 1954 and whose members are nicknamed “Moonies” after its founder Sun Myung-moon.
The Church has been accused of fomenting child neglect among its members and financially exploiting them, claims it denies.
Yamagami was said to have held a grudge against the Church for bankrupting his family after his mother donated around ¥100mil as proof of her faith.
Investigations after Abe’s murder led to cascading revelations about close ties between the Church and many conservative lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, prompting four ministers to resign. — AFP
