Suspect in assassination of Japan’s Abe charged with murder
Conrad Hoyt
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The man accused of assassinating former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last summer has been officially charged with murder, sending him to stand trial, a Japanese court said Friday.
Tetsuya Yamagami was arrested immediately after allegedly shooting Abe with a homemade gun as the 67-year-old former prime minister was making a campaign speech in July outside a train station in Nara in western Japan. Yamagami reportedly told police he was frustrated with Abe and had planned to kill him.
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Later in the month, the Associated Press reports Yamagami was sent to a detention center for a nearly six-month mental evaluation, which ended Tuesday. He is now back in police custody in Nara.
Prosecutors said the results of his mental evaluation showed he is fit to stand trial, the news outlet reports. Yamagami was also charged with violating a gun control law, according to the Nara District Court.
Abe assumed the mantle of prime minister in 2012 and stepped down in 2020, citing poor health as a reason for his resignation. He had been the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history.
Gun deaths are rare in Japan, with about a dozen or so occurring each year in the country, which has a population of about 125 million people.
The country also has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world. Prior to the death of Abe, the last assassination of a Japanese prime minister took place 91 years ago. In 1932, Japanese Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was fatally shot by junior navy officers in a coup attempt.