TOKYO (AP) — Japanese prosecutors are expected to formally charge a suspect in the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday, his lawyer said.
Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested shortly after he allegedly shot Abe with a homemade gun while the former leader was giving an election speech in July outside a train station in Nara, western Japan. That same month, Yamagami was sent to a detention center in Osaka and received a five-month mental evaluation, which ended on Tuesday.
Yamagami is back in police custody in Nara after being found fit to stand trial.
One of his lawyers, Masaaki Furukawa, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he expected prosecutors to charge Yamagami with murder and violating gun control laws.
Given the complexity of the case, it will be months before his trial begins, he said.
Furukawa said he and two other lawyers took turns visiting Yamagami in the detention center every 10 to 12 days between examinations by psychiatric experts. His visitors were limited to lawyers and his sister, he said.
Furukawa said Yamagami was doing well at the detention center. He said he could not reveal details of their conversations before seeing what evidence prosecutors presented to the court in their indictment.
Police say Yamagami told them he killed Abe, one of Japan’s most influential and divisive politicians, because of Abe’s apparent ties to a religious group he hated. In his statements and social media posts attributed to him, Yamagami said he was troubled by his mother’s massive donations to the Unification Church, which bankrupted his family and ruined his life.
“It’s an extremely serious case, but someone has to defend it,” Furukawa said. “Of course, he will have to bear criminal responsibility for the serious consequences he caused by firing a gun to take the life of a politician, and we are accused of doing everything possible to reduce his sentence.”
Yamagami’s father, an executive at a company founded by the suspect’s grandfather, committed suicide when Yamagami was 4 years old. After his mother joined the church, she began making large donations, which bankrupted the family and dashed Yamagami’s hopes of going to college. His brother later committed suicide. After a three-year stint in the navy, Yamagami was the last journeyman.
Some Japanese have expressed sympathy for Yamagami, particularly those who suffered as children of followers of South Korea’s Unification Church, which is known for pressuring followers to make large donations and is considered a cult in Japan .
Thousands of people signed a petition calling for clemency for Yamagami, and others sent care packages to his relatives or the detention center.
The investigation into the case revealed years of close ties between Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the church, since Abe’s grandfather, former prime minister Nobusuke Kishi, helped the church take root in Japan in the ’60. and anti. – communist causes.
Current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s popularity has declined over his handling of the church controversy and his insistence on holding a rare and controversial state funeral for Abe.
In a September 2021 video message, Abe praised the Unification Church’s work for peace on the Korean peninsula and emphasis on traditional family values.
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