Photo/Illutration Tetsuya Yamagami, the suspected killer of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is taken to prosecutors on July 10 in Nara. (Jin Nishioka)

The mother of the man suspected of murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe donated more than 100 million yen ($720,000) to the Unification Church, a relative said.

The contributions to the religious group included 50 million yen she received from a life insurance policy taken on her husband, as well as proceeds from property sales, the relative told The Asahi Shimbun.

She was declared bankrupt in 2002.

Her son, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, has been sent to prosecutors on suspicion of murdering Abe, 67, who was gunned down on July 8 while giving an election campaign speech in Nara.

Yamagami reportedly told investigators that he shot the former prime minister over a grudge he held against a religious group.

According to investigative sources, Yamagami said his mother’s donations to the group ruined the family financially.

He wanted to kill the leader of the group, but that was difficult, so he targeted Abe because he thought the politician had close ties to the religious organization, the sources said.

Notebooks seized from the homes of the suspect and his mother contained jottings by Yamagami complaining about his mother and the religious group, the sources said.

A representative of the Japanese arm of the Unification Church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, told a news conference on July 11 that Yamagami’s mother joined the group in or around 1998.

The organization on July 13 released a statement to the media that said, “Although we still haven’t figured out the exact amount (of the donations from Yamagami’s mother), 50 million yen was returned to her for the period of 10 years from 2005.”

According to land register records and other sources, the mother inherited two plots of land in 1998 and sold them five to eight months later in 1999.

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