Photo/Illutration Tetsuya Yamagami at the Nara Nishi Police Station in Nara on Feb. 14, 2023 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Prosecutors and defense lawyers are arguing over whether “religious influence” can be used in the trial of Tetsuya Yamagami, who is accused of murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Although the defense team does not plan to challenge the contention that Yamagami, 44, was the shooter, it hopes to explain the background of his actions to seek leniency in sentencing at the lay-judge trial.

Yamagami has met several times with a religious scholar, and the two have discussed how the Unification Church has affected the life of the suspect, among other topics, according to sources.

The defense is considering submitting the results of the meetings as evidence in the trial as private expert testimony to establish the background of the case.

Prosecutors, however, have opposed the defense team’s strategy, arguing the maliciousness of the crime itself should be examined, and there is no need to go into the influence of religion.

“This is not a trial to question religion,” a prosecution source has said.

According to investigators, Yamagami said during questioning that his mother donated heavily to the Unification Church, now formally called the Family Federation for the Unification of World Peace.

He said the donations bankrupted the family and ruined his life, and that he targeted Abe because of his close relationship with the church, according to the investigators.

Abe was shot and killed by a homemade shotgun in Nara Prefecture in July 2022.

Yamagami has been held at the Osaka Detention Center since he was indicted on charges of murder and violating the firearms law in February 2023.

Pretrial proceedings, which take an average of about 11 months to complete, have dragged on in this case.

According to sources, one reason for the delay is the ongoing tug-of-war between the defense and prosecution over whether the church’s impact on the Yamagami family can be raised in the trial.

The defense had initially requested an “emotional evaluation,” in which a psychologist would analyze the defendant’s upbringing.

Yamagami’s lawyers planned to use the results of this examination to explain the circumstances leading up to the shooting of Abe.

However, the Nara District Court rejected the request in July 2024, siding with the prosecution’s objection.

The defense gave up on seeking a publicly-funded emotional evaluation and instead asked the religious scholar to meet with Yamagami.

Prosecutors also opposed the use of the Yamagami-scholar talks as evidence in the trial, saying the purpose of the interviews is the same as that of an emotional evaluation.

They said the defense is ignoring the reasoning behind the Nara District Court’s dismissal of the request for an emotional evaluation.

The trial is not expected to start until after autumn.

According to sources, another issue is whether the homemade gun constitutes a “firearm” under the law.

The Tokyo District Court on March 25 issued an order for the dissolution of the church on grounds that it had “caused unprecedented and enormous damage through its solicitation of donations.”

(This article was written by Kazutaka Toda and Ko Sendo.)

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