Following his indictment, pretrial proceedings against Shinzo Abe’s suspected shooter are expected to present difficult issues, with his defense likely to try offsetting the shock over the first murder of a postwar Japanese leader by describing the defendant as a “victim” of a religious group that ruined his family financially.
Tetsuya Yamagami was charged on Jan. 13 with the murder of Abe — Japan’s longest-serving prime minister — during an election campaign rally in July last year, as well as with violating the firearms control law by being in possession of a homemade gun.
Yamagami has told investigators he held a grudge against the Unification Church, a group originally founded in South Korea, and targeted Abe because he was a grandson of former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, who helped the group enter Japan, according to investigative sources.