The suspect in the slaying of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may face at least five additional charges concerning suspected firearms violations after police decided to refer him to prosecutors for the offenses.

The possible charges against Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, that will be referred by Nara prefectural police to prosecutors include suspected breaches of both the Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law and the Weapons Manufacturing Law, according to sources.

The Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law prohibits the firing of “handguns or other firearms” in public places.

Police concluded the handmade gun that police say Yamagami used to shoot Abe on July 8 while he was campaigning in Nara city falls into the category of “handguns or other firearms” under the law.

The law categorizes firearms by seven types.

Of those, handguns, rifles, machine guns, and artillery pieces collectively refer to “handguns or other firearms” under the law.

The National Research Institute of Police Science and other authorities have confirmed that the handgun Yamagami used had the capacity to kill or maim people.

In contrast, prefectural police will not refer Yamagami to prosecutors concerning suspected breaches of the Public Offices Election Law for obstruction of an election.

Police concluded that Yamagami did not intend to disrupt the election when he shot Abe.

He is currently undergoing a psychiatric evaluation that will wind up Jan. 10 to assess his mental condition at the time of the incident.

If the Nara District Public Prosecutors Office concludes that Yamagami is competent to bear criminal liability based on the psychiatric evaluation, it is expected to formally indict him for Abe’s murder by Jan. 13, when his detention period ends.

In the interim, prefectural police will refer suspected breaches of laws, including the one on the firing of a handgun, before prosecutors indict Yamagami on the murder charge, according to the sources.

Police seized seven handmade guns, including incomplete ones, as well as gunpowder from his home in Nara.

Police contend he violated a clause of the Weapons Manufacturing Law which prohibits manufacturing firearms without permission. 

Yamagami told police he mixed gunpowder by himself. The result made his handmade guns lethal.

His dabbling with gunpowder constitutes a suspected breach of the Gunpowder Control Law, which will result in prefectural police also sending documents to prosecutors on grounds Yamagami violated a clause which prohibits the production of gunpowder without permission.

Police suspect Yamagami also fired shots at a building in Nara that houses an affiliated organization of the Unification Church, now formerly called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, on the eve of the murder.

The police will refer him to prosecutors on this incident for damaging a building and violating the Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law. 

Yamagami was arrested on the spot following the shooting near Kintetsu Railway’s Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara around 11:30 a.m. on July 8. 

He told investigators he blamed the Unification Church for his lousy upbringing, brought on by his mother’s large donations to the organization.

Yamagami also said he targeted Abe, the nation’s longest-serving prime minister, because he suspected, rightly as it later emerged, that Abe had formed close ties to the church.

Abe was making a speech for a candidate in the July 10 Upper House election when he was gunned down.

After Abe was pronounced dead at a hospital, police referred Yamagami to prosecutors on suspicion of murder. 

According to investigative sources, the handgun Yamagami used to kill Abe was around 40 centimeters in length. 

Two metal tubes to form gun barrels were fixed with plastic tape to a board. The contraption was about 20 cm tall. 

The handgun device could simultaneously fire six bullets of around 1 cm in diameter each, police said. 

The Firearm and Sword Possession Control Law prohibits the possession of firearms. 

In addition, prefectural police will refer Yamagami to prosecutors on suspicion of possessing both firearms and bullets at the same time, another offense banned by the same law, as the police concluded the bullets in Yamagami's possession matched those fired to shoot Abe.