US EditionShinzo Abe’s Assassin Faces Verdict
Tetsuya Yamagami admitted murder but contests other charges; prosecutors seek life imprisonment citing the unprecedented impact of Abe's assassination on Japanese society.
- On Wednesday, a district court in Nara hears a verdict in the assassination trial, more than three years after the broad-daylight killing; Tetsuya Yamagami faces murder and firearms charges and admitted murder when the trial opened.
- Yamagami's family suffered financially after his mother's donations to the Unification Church, as months of testimony showed these plunged them into bankruptcy and hardship.
- Prosecutors called the shooting highly premeditated, citing Yamagami's hand-crafted firearm and meticulous test-firing in remote mountainous test-firing locations, while security officials at the scene initially failed to recognize gunfire.
- Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence and called the killing `unprecedented in our post-war history`, while members of the public waiting for courtroom tickets showed intense interest and Japan's life imprisonment technically allows parole.
- The slaying prompted scrutiny of political links to church groups and political fallout, as investigations revealed alleged ties between the Unification Church and conservative lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, prompting four ministers to resign.
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Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, is accused of shooting at the former Japanese leader, who had left his post two years earlier, using a handcrafted weapon at an election meeting on 8 July 2022 in Nara, near Kyoto.
Japan Court To Rule Today In Ex-PM Shinzo Abe Assassination Case
A Japanese court will on Wednesday deliver its verdict on a man accused of fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, three and a half years after the assassination of the country's longest-serving premier stunned the nation.
[Yomiuri Shimbun] The verdict of the lay judge trial of defendant Tetsuya Yamagami (45), who is accused of murder and other crimes in the case of the shooting death of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022, will be handed down at 1:30 pm on the 21st at the Nara District Court (Judge Shinichi Tanaka, presiding). The trial has been going on for 15 days since the first hearing on October 28th last year.
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