Crime & Justice

Japanese prosecutors investigate Abe’s suspected murderer

Tokyo, Jul 10 (EFE).- Japanese prosecutors on Sunday opened their investigation into the alleged murderer of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, was arrested immediately after he allegedly shot Abe during a campaign event in the western Japanese city of Nara.

Yamagami, who served in the maritime self-defense force, has confessed that he planned to kill Abe for his alleged ties to a religious organization against which he had a grudge for causing problems for his family, according to information from authorities that was leaked to the local media.

Yamagami’s mother had made a large donation to the organization, according to those reports, which also suggest that the suspect had contemplated attacking a leader of the group before deciding to target Abe instead.

Although his motive remains unclear, evidence gathered by the authorities suggests that the suspect had been planning an attack on the prominent Japanese politician for some time.

Police found several homemade weapons similar to the shotgun he used to shoot Abe at his home in Nara.

They also found explosives which has led them to believe that Yamagami was trying to make a bomb.

The suspect had studied the program of campaign events featuring Abe and considered attacking him at a rally in the western city of Okayama on Thursday but decided against it as the event was held in an auditorium with security checks.

Yamagami allegedly waited until Friday because Abe’s rally on that day was in the middle of a street in the city where he lived and in front of a train station.

The suspect arrived at the scene more than an hour in advance.

Once Abe began his speech, he approached him slowly from behind and allegedly shot at him twice from the gun he was carrying in a bag.

The local police, which was in charge of the event’s security arrangements together with a special team of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area Corps, has admitted that there were security “problems” that allowed the assassination to take place.

Abe was rushed to a hospital in Nara with injuries to his chest and neck that caused him to go into cardio-respiratory arrest.

He died about five-and-a-half hours after the incident from bleeding caused by injuries to his arteries and heart, according to medical services. EFE

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