Buenos Aires, January 21 (NA) – The Nara District Court sentenced Tetsuya Yamagami to life in prison on Wednesday for the fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022. Prosecutors sought a life sentence for Yamagami, 45, after considering the act of murdering the former head of government with a homemade firearm at an outdoor political rally as “a crime unprecedented in the country's postwar history,” according to the Argentine News Agency. Abe was fatally shot on July 8, 2022, while delivering a campaign speech in the city of Nara to support a candidate for the House of Representatives from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Yamagami was arrested at the scene. Yamagami admitted to killing Abe during his trial at the Nara District Court, and said he committed the crime out of hatred for the Unification Church, as his family was ruined by his mother's donations to that religious group, which he thought had close ties with Abe and other Japanese politicians. Yamagami's defense had requested a prison sentence of no more than 20 years, arguing that he was a victim of a religious group and that his “tragic” circumstances motivated him to kill Abe. After Yamagami's arrest, the government launched an investigation into the Unification Church for soliciting ruinous donations from its members, which led the Tokyo District Court to order its dissolution and remove its tax benefits as a religious organization.
