Photo/Illutration Tetsuya Yamagami, accused of killing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, arrives at Nara-Nishi Police Station in Nara on Jan. 10 after completing months of psychiatric testing. (Nobuhiro Shirai)

NARA--The accused killer of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he fired gunshots at a Unification Church facility on the eve of the slaying out of a deep grudge against the religious organization and not Abe’s political creed, according to investigative sources.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, was indicted Jan. 13 for the murder, along with other charges connected to the July 8 slaying in Nara city while Abe was giving a campaign speech.

Yamagami told police soon after his arrest he fired shots at a facility in Nara city belonging to the organization formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

He said his intention was not merely to demonstrate he held a grudge against the Unification Church, but also highlight the close ties the church had with Abe. That relationship was the primary reason for targeting Abe the following day, Yamagami told police.

Also on July 7, Yamagami posted a letter to a man living in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, who had long been critical of the Unification Church. In the letter, Yamagami outlined his hatred for the church because his family life was thrown into utter misery by huge donations made to the group by his devout mother.

Yamagami also wrote that Abe was not his true target.

He also told police that in 2019, when Hak Ja Han, the widow of church founder Sun Myung Moon and now head of the church, came to Japan for a church event, he prepared an incendiary bomb and carried a knife in the hope of attacking her, but was turned away.

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