THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
July 8, 2023 at 14:38 JST
The suspect in the slaying a year ago today of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe still gets loads of letters from well-wishers and people sympathetic to his plight, sources say.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, told police after his arrest that he targeted Abe because of the lawmaker’s close ties with the Unification Church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
He blamed the church for his miserable childhood, explaining that his mother’s large donations often meant there was not enough food on the table at mealtimes.
His lawyers are seeking to delay the start of his trial until 2024 at the earliest, citing a mountain of evidence they must sift through in connection with the slew of charges their client faces.
In addition to the murder charge, Yamagami faces hand-made weapon and ammunition offenses. He is also accused of interfering in election campaign activities.
Yamagami is being held at the Osaka Detention House where he has weekly visits from his lawyers.
The lawyers say their client has no health problems and still receives a large number of letters, many from people empathizing with the circumstances that drove him later in life to gun down one of the nation’s most prominent politicians.
Abe was assassinated July 8, 2022, while giving a campaign speech in Nara city.
Yamagami also spends time reading newspapers and books on modern history.
Sources close to the investigation said police found empty shotgun shells at Yamagami’s home, as well as an envelope sent from a man in his 60s living in the northern Kanto region who often provided empty shells on internet auction sites. The man is a competitive shooter.
Police are uncertain why Yamagami purchased the shells.
(Nanami Watanabe and Sho Okano contributed to this article.)
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Police escort Tetsuya Yamagami to Nara Nishi Police Station in January. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
