JAPAN: The gunman accused of killing Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe pled guilty Tuesday, three years after the assassination in broad daylight shocked the world.
The slaying forced a reckoning in a country with little experience of gun violence and ignited scrutiny of alleged ties between prominent conservative lawmakers and a secretive sect, the Unification Church.
“Everything is true,” Tetsuya Yamagami said at a court in the western city of Nara, admitting to the murder of the country’s longest-serving leader in July 2022.
The 45-year-old was led into the room by four security officials.
When the judge asked him to state his name, Yamagami, who was wearing a black T-shirt and had his long hair tied at the back, replied in a barely audible voice.
However, his lawyer said they would contest certain charges, including violations of arms control laws for allegedly using a handmade weapon.
Yamagami’s trial had been a long time coming after the discovery of a suspicious item — later found to be harmless — caused its last-minute cancellation and the evacuation of the Nara court building in 2023.
The assassination was also a wake-up call for a nation with some of the world’s strictest gun controls.
Gun violence is so rare in Japan that security officials at the scene failed to immediately identify the sound made by the first shot and came to Abe’s rescue too late, a police report after the attack said.
The debacle prompted lawmakers to pass a bill in 2024 further strengthening arms controls to prevent people from making homemade guns.
Under the new rules, uploading tutorial videos on making firearms and propagating information about gun sales on social media can result in a fine or imprisonment of up to one year. – AFP
