TOKYO, Oct 28 (Reuters) — A person accused of fatally capturing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe admitted to homicide on Tuesday within the first listening to of the case, media mentioned, three years after the assassination of Japan’s longest-serving premier shocked the nation.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, was arrested on the scene of the capturing in July 2022 after allegedly firing at Abe with a home made gun whereas the previous premier was giving a speech throughout an election marketing campaign within the western metropolis of Nara.
“It is true that I did it,” Yamagami, who appeared calm in a black sweatshirt and gray trousers with grown-out hair tied on the again, instructed the courtroom, public broadcaster NHK reported.
A lawyer for Yamagami subsequently requested for any punishment to be lowered, saying the handmade gun he used didn’t fall throughout the class of handguns outlined by Japan’s Firearms and Swords Management Act, NHK added.
STR/JIJI Press/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
The high-profile trial opened on the day of a summit assembly of two of Abe’s former allies, incumbent Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and visiting U.S. President Donald Trump.
“He was a great friend of mine and a great friend of yours,” Trump mentioned as he shook arms with Japan’s first feminine prime minister.
Abe was the primary international chief to satisfy Trump after his 2016 election victory and the pair went on to forge an in depth bond over a number of rounds of golf in the US and Japan.
AP Photograph/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Yamagami blamed Abe for selling the Unification Church, a non secular group in opposition to which he held a grudge after his mom donated some 100 million yen ($660,000) to it, home media have mentioned.
Based in South Korea in 1954, the Unification Church is known for its mass weddings and counts Japanese followers as a key supply of revenue.
The capturing was adopted by revelations that greater than 100 lawmakers of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Social gathering had ties to it, driving down public help for the ruling celebration, which is now led by Takaichi.
After Tuesday’s first courtroom session, as much as 17 extra hearings are set by year-end, earlier than a verdict is handed down on January 21. ($1=150.7800 yen)
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Modifying by Christopher Cushing and Clarence Fernandez)
