Shinzo Abe killer indicted triggering changes in law

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
13 Jan 2023 16:24

Tetsuya Yamagami, the assassin of Shinzo Abe, is indicted after being considered competent to stand trial.

Tetsuya Yamagami is escorted by a police officer as he is taken to prosecutors, at Nara-nishi police station in Nara, western Japan, July 10, 2022 (Kyodo).

Six months after the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan on Friday indicted Tetsuya Yamagami with murder and breaking firearms control laws in Japan.

It is worth noting that after being held “under evaluation since July 25 to determine whether he was mentally fit to be held criminally responsible for his actions,” Yamagami has been found "competent to stand trial."

On Tuesday, his detention period had expired before he was transferred to a police station in the same area as the Osaka Detention House, where he expressed that he had intentions to go to a university once he completed his sentence.

Japanese news agency NHK explained that Yamagami was “unable to go to college as his mother had made huge donations to the religious group widely known as the Unification Church.”

Based on that, the shooter claimed that he had held a grudge against the Unification Church and consequently targeted the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, believing he had links to the group.

Furthermore, Yamagami was also probed for allegedly “damaging a building after test-firing a weapon at a facility connected to the Unification Church, a day before the fatal shooting.”

Japan has approved legislation prohibiting groups from "maliciously soliciting donations" in response to the tragic assassination of Abe. The controversial Unification Church in Japan garnered criticism, and the House of Representatives passed the law in December. The bill is currently being reviewed in the House of Councilors, which is the upper house.