Tetsuya Yamagami, who is standing trial for murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022, testified in court on Tuesday that he believed Abe was at the center of the relationship between politics and the Unification Church, explaining why he carried out the murder.
The mother of Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, who is charged with the 2022 murder of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Nara, western Japan, apologized for the crime committed by her second son as she appeared in court as a defense witness. “I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart for the terrible crime committed by my second son, Tetsuya,” said the mother, a follower of the Unification Church, at the beginning of her testimony at the seventh hearing of his lay-judge trial at Nara District Court.
During the sixth court hearing of Yamagami’s trial, videos of test firings conducted during the examination of the guns were played, with the 45-year-old defendant watching the monitor expressionlessly.
Japanese lawmaker Kei Sato, who was at the scene of the shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the western Japan city of Nara in 2022, appeared in the trial of the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, as a witness Wednesday, expressing his resentment and grief over the fatal attack. “At that time, I was there with mixed feelings of anger and sadness, while crying,” Sato, 46, a member of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, said during the second hearing of the trial at Nara District Court.
Tetsuya Yamagami, who is charged with murdering former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the western Japan city of Nara about three years ago, pleaded guilty at the first hearing of his trial at Nara District Court on Tuesday. The 45-year-old defendant said that the charges against him were “all true.” Meanwhile, the defense contested the charge of firing a weapon in violation of the firearms and swords control law, arguing that the homemade gun he used in the attack was not covered by the law.
Tetsuya Yamagami is expected to plead guilty to murdering former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the first hearing of his trial at Nara District Court on Tuesday, more than three years after the fatal shooting in the western city of Nara in July 2022. The defense plans to claim that the damage Yamagami suffered from the controversial Unification Church religious group was behind the crime. On the other hand, the prosecution is expected to argue that the influence of the group on the incident should not be exaggerated and that the viciousness of the crime itself should be emphasized.
The mother of Tetsuya Yamagami, indicted for killing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a handmade gun in Nara in 2022, will go to court as a defense witness, it was learned Wednesday. In the final pretrial arrangement proceeding held the same day, Nara District Court decided to have five witnesses testy for Yamagami, 45, and seven others for the prosecution as requested by the two sides, respectively.
The first court hearing of the lay judge trial of Tetsuya Yamagami, who was indicted for the fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022, will be held from 2 p.m. on Oct. 28, Nara District Court said Friday.
Yamagami, 44, has been charged with murdering Abe and violating the firearms and swords control law. He is expected to admit that he had an intention to kill Abe, according to informed sources.
The trial of Tetsuya Yamagami, charged with murdering former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022, may begin this October, it has been learned. On Friday, Nara District Court presented the Nara District Public Prosecutors Office and Yamagami’s lawyers with a proposal to hold the first hearing of his trial in late October, informed sources said. Yamagami, 44, is expected to admit in court that he intended to kill Abe, according to the sources. A total of six pretrial conferences have been held on the case so far, and the seventh is scheduled for May 27.
As Monday marks the second anniversary of the fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Unification Church finds itself in a difficult position as the incident shed light on the religious group’s controversial practices, such as collecting massive donations from its followers.
Since November 2022, the culture ministry has repeatedly exercised its right to have the group respond to its inquiries. And in October last year, the ministry asked Tokyo District Court to issue an order to dissolve the group, alleging violations of the Civil Code.
Barrier Free Japan