Japanese prosecutors on Friday charged the man suspected of murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last July, after the suspect was found fit to stand trial after a lengthy psychiatric assessment.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, was arrested immediately after the incident in Nara, where the former Japanese leader was giving a speech at an outdoor election rally when he was shot dead.
“He was charged today” with “murder and violation of the law” on arms control, a spokesman for the Nara court told AFP, confirming information from the daily Yomiuri and Kyodo News Agency.
Mr. Yamagami faces the death penalty if found guilty.
Earlier this week, Japanese TV stations aired footage showing his transfer to a Nara police station from a detention center in the nearby metropolis of Osaka, where he had spent the past five months undergoing psychiatric evaluation. .
Mr. Yamagami admitted to killing Shinzo Abe according to local media, and television images show him at the scene of the crime, using an obviously homemade firearm.
Prime Minister of Japan in 2006-2007 and 2012-2020, Abe was allegedly targeted by Mr Yamagami for his alleged links to the Moon sect, also known as the Unification Church.
The suspect resented this group, to which his mother would have made very large donations in the past, leading their family to ruin.
According to local media, his psychiatric examination focused on his relationship with his mother and his family environment.
Huge scandal in Japan
Shinzo Abe, whose controversial state funeral in Japan was held last September, was not a member of the Unification Church.
But he had notably participated in 2021 in a symposium organized by a group affiliated with this sect, like other political figures including former American President Donald Trump.
Founded in Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon, this religious organization developed strongly in the 1970s and 1980s, including in Japan.
Mr. Moon (1920-2012) had in particular established relations with the grandfather of Shinzo Abe, Nobusuke Kishi, who had himself been Prime Minister of Japan in the late 1950s.
The one that now calls itself the “Family Federation for World Peace and Unification” has denied any wrongdoing on its part and has pledged to prevent “excessive” donations from its members.
Abe’s murder prompted a series of revelations about the religious group’s ties to many Japanese elected officials. This has helped to lower the popularity rating of the government of Fumio Kishida, president of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD, conservative right) like Abe before him, since last summer.
Mr. Kishida ordered a government investigation that could result in an order disbanding the Moon sect under Japan’s religious organization law. This measure would cause it to lose its tax exemptions, without however putting an end to its activities.
Mr. Yamagami’s family suffering has won him the sympathy of some Japanese people.
The Osaka prison where he was being held has received numerous cash donations as well as clothing, food and books, and a petition begging prosecutors for clemency has collected 15,000 signatures, according to local media.