Two recent court proceedings in Japan have involved claims about the accused’s mental health: an appeal of nurse with autism whom was found guilty of murdering three patients and the man charged with killing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
A psychiatric evaluation of the man accused of fatally shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has determined him mentally fit to be held criminally responsible for his actions, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.
The defense for Tetsuya Yamagami did not contest the results of the evaluation, which had been conducted at the request of prosecutors, and effectively deferred a request for another evaluation, the sources said.
In January 2023, after around six months of psychiatric evaluation by prosecutors, Yamagami was indicted for murder and violating the firearms control law.
Nara District Court canceled Monday’s pretrial hearing for the suspect of the fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, after a suspicious cardboard box arrived at the court in western Japan on the day.
After the box was checked with a metal detector, an official at the court in the city of Nara reported the incident to the police department of Nara Prefecture.
Prosecutors on Friday indicted a man on charges of murder and violating the firearms control law for fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an election campaign in the western Japan city of Nara in July.
Nara public prosecutors began the psychiatric evaluation on July 25 that year. The evaluation period was initially slated to last for four months through Nov. 29, but it was extended following a request from the prosecutors.
His statements during the examination, including those on how he made a firearm himself to shoot Abe, led the prosecutors to believe he was competent enough to be tried, the sources said.
The defense team for the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, who has been sent to public prosecutors on suspicion of murder, had filed a quasi-appeal against the summary court’s decision, made on Monday, to push back the end date of the evaluation period to Jan. 23 next year from Jan. 10 in the same year.
The district court accepted the quasi-appeal, saying that it is difficult to acknowledge the need for a further extension and that it is also not reasonable to have the period extended in consideration of disadvantages to be created for the suspect, according to the defense team.
The evaluation period was initially scheduled to end on Nov. 29. Although its extension until Feb. 6 was once approved, Yamagami’s lawyers made an objection, and the extension was cut to until Jan. 10.
The psychiatric evaluation for the man accused of fatally shooting former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shortened to end on Jan. 10 next year, a lawyer for the man said Friday.
Barrier Free Japan