Man receives life sentence for killing former Japanese PM Abe

(MENAFN) Tetsuya Yamagami, who fatally shot former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a rally in Nara in 2022, has been sentenced to life imprisonment, over three years after the attack.

Yamagami, 45, pleaded guilty at the start of his trial last year, but public opinion remains divided. Many view him as a cold-blooded killer, while some express sympathy for his difficult upbringing.

Prosecutors argued that Yamagami’s “grave act” warrants life imprisonment. His defence team sought leniency, citing his experience of “religious abuse,” pointing to his mother’s devotion to the Unification Church, which they say ruined the family financially, and Yamagami’s anger at Abe for his links to the controversial organization.

Almost 700 people gathered outside Nara District Court on Wednesday for the sentencing hearing. Abe’s assassination, carried out in broad daylight, shocked Japan—a nation with extremely low gun crime—and triggered investigations into the Unification Church’s practices and its connections to politicians in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The scandal led to the resignation of several cabinet ministers.

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