TOKYO, Japan: Tetsuya Yamagami, the man who fatally shot former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022, filed an appeal today against his life sentence, Xinhua reported.
The Nara District Court on Jan. 21 handed down a life sentence to Yamagami, 45, who was convicted of murder and other charges for shooting Abe with a homemade gun in July 2022 while the former leader was delivering a campaign speech on a street in Nara.
The ruling rejected the defence counsel’s argument that his unfavourable upbringing should be considered in determining his sentence.
Masaaki Furukawa, one of Yamagami’s lawyers, said the decision to appeal was made after consultations with the defendant to seek a review and possible correction of the initial ruling, the ‘Asahi Shimbun’ reported.
Yamagami had earlier admitted to murdering Abe during his trial at the Nara District Court, saying that he committed the crime due to a grudge he held against the Unification Church because his family suffered financial ruin due to his mother’s large donations to the religious group, which he believed had close ties to Abe and other Japanese politicians.
Yamagami’s defence had called for a prison term of no more than 20 years, arguing that he was a victim of a religious group’s harm and that his “tragic” upbringing motivated him to kill Abe.
The court, however, maintained that while his upbringing involved significant hardship, it did not justify a substantial reduction in sentence. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
