Yamagami Indicted for Fatal Shooting of Ex-PM Abe

Nara, Jan. 13 (Jiji Press)--Japanese public prosecutors indicted 42-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami on Friday on charges of murder and weapons law violations linked to the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Nara District Public Prosecutors Office decided that Yamagami can be held criminally responsible for the shooting in July last year after he underwent psychiatric evaluation tests. Pretrial proceedings are expected to begin soon. The trial is seen including lay judges. According to the indictment, Yamagami killed Abe by firing a homemade gun twice from close range around 11:30 a.m. July 8, 2022, while Abe was giving a campaign speech for an election of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of Japan's parliament, near Kintetsu Railway Co.'s Yamato-Saidaiji Station in the western city of Nara. Yamagami told the Nara prefectural police immediately after the shooting that he had a grudge against the controversial religious group known as the Unification Church and that he thought Abe had links with the group. Public prosecutors conducted a psychiatric evaluation of Yamagami from July 25 that year until Tuesday to check his mental condition at the time of the incident. The suspect is believed to have made several guns of different sizes and shapes, along with bullets, based on information found on the internet, and repeatedly test-fired them. The police will also seek to send papers on him to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the ordnance manufacturing and explosives control laws, as well as of causing damage to property by test-firing a gun at a building in Nara where a Unification Church-related facility was located. Yamagami may also be accused of violating the public offices election law by obstructing a free election. END