Shinzo Abe’s murder trial continues: 42-year-old suspect charged

Charges against the suspect for the murder of the former prime minister Shinzo Abe last July, Japanese prosecutors charged on Friday (13/1) as the 42-year-old was deemed fit to stand trial after being examined by psychiatrists.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, was arrested immediately after the murder in Nara (western Japan), where the former prime minister was assassinated while giving a speech during an outdoor pre-election rally.

“He was charged today” with “murder and violation of the law” on arms control, a Nara court spokesman told AFP, confirming reports by the Yomiuri newspaper and Kyodo news agency.

Yamagami faces the death penalty if convicted.

Earlier this week, Japanese television networks broadcast images of him being transported to Nara police station from a detention center in neighboring Osaka, where he has spent the past five months being examined for mental health.

Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister from 2006-2007 and 2012-2020, was targeted by Yamagami for his alleged ties to the Moon Sectwhich is also known as the Unification Church.

The suspect wanted to take revenge on this organization, in which his mother had made very large donations in the past, leading to ruin for their family.

According to the local media and as reported by the Athens News Agency, his psychiatric examination concerned his relations with his mother and his family environment.

Abe’s killing sparked a series of revelations about the religious group’s ties to numerous elected Japanese officials and contributed to a decline since last summer in the popularity of the government of Fumio Kishida, president of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which, like Abe before him.

Kishida ordered a government investigation, which may lead to an order to disband the Moon Sect under Japan’s Religious Organizations Act. The order would see the organization lose its tax exemptions, but would not require it to end its operations.