TOKYO, Jan 21 (Reuters) – A Japanese court will on Wednesday deliver its verdict on a man accused of fatally shooting former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, three and a half years after the assassination of the country’s longest-serving premier stunned the nation.
Tetsuya Yamagami, now 45, was arrested on the spot in July 2022 after fatally firing at Abe with a homemade gun while the former prime minister was delivering a campaign speech in the western city of Nara. Abe was 67.
Although he was no longer Japan’s leader at the time, Abe remained a powerful and binding force within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. His absence has left a vacuum within the party, which has since seen two leadership races and by extension, a revolving door of prime ministers.
Abe himself served as prime minister for a total of 3,188 days over two separate terms, stepping down in September 2020 citing health reasons.
His protegee Sanae Takaichi now leads Japan and the LDP, but the party’s grip on power has considerably diminished.
Abe’s killing also brought to light a deep link between his party and the Unification Church, an organisation many consider a cult. An in-party investigation found that more than a hundred lawmakers had dealings with the group, leading many voters to shun the LDP, which has ruled Japan for most of the post-war period.
Media have quoted Yamagami as telling the court that he held a grudge against the Unification Church after his mother’s large donation to it caused financial hardship for their family, and that he took out his anger on Abe because the former prime minister had once sent a video message to an event held by a group affiliated with the church.
Founded in South Korea in 1954, the Unification Church is famous for its mass weddings and counts Japanese followers as a key source of income.
A guilty verdict is all but certain after Yamagami admitted to killing Abe in the first court hearing at the Nara District Court in October, and attention is on the severity of the sentence.
Prosecutors sought a life sentence last month, calling the act an “extremely grave incident that is unprecedented in post-war history”.
Yamagami’s lawyers, meanwhile, argued that the family’s misfortune caused by the donation to the Unification Church should be taken into consideration and limit his prison term to 20 years at most.
While Abe was a divisive figure domestically, he was among the few global leaders to have a strong rapport with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Abe was the first foreign leader to meet Trump after his 2016 election victory and the two went on to forge a close bond over rounds of golf in the United States and Japan. Prime Minister Takaichi has repeatedly referenced their friendship in her own dealings with Trump.
(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Michael Perry)
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