Man arrested for Abe’s assassination sent for psychiatric examination
Tokyo, Jul 25 (EFE).- The police in Nara, in western Japan, transferred Monday the man arrested for the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a center in Osaka, where he will undergo a psychiatric examination.
The investigators seek to determine whether Tetsuya Yamagami, the 41-year-old former military man from Nara who fatally shot Abe with a home-made gun during an election rally on Jul.8, was in full control of his mental capabilities.
The results could determine whether he could be held criminally responsible for the attack.
Yamagami was moved out of the police station he was detained in Nara at around 10.15am, and he arrived at Osaka Detention House at 11.10am, according to state broadcaster NHK.
The psychiatric evaluation will determine his mental state at the time of the incident, and the Nara District Attorney’s Office, responsible for the case, will proceed with the prosecution based on the results.
According to Yamagami’s statements so far – leaked to the local media -, he allegedly committed the crime out of resentment toward the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, a controversial sect better known as the Unification Church, believing Abe had ties to it.
Yamagami supposedly told investigators that her mother made large donations to the group years ago that led her to bankruptcy and adversely affected her family.
Investigators believe that the initial target of the attack was Hak Ja Han Moon, the current leader of the group and the widow of its founder, but Yamagami changed his target after an unsuccessful attempt.
In a letter sent to a critic of the group shortly before the assassination, Yamagami said it was impossible to kill the Moon family and that Abe was not their original enemy, but he was one of the most influential supporters of the Unification Church, according to the Mainichi newspaper.
Yamagami reportedly targeted Abe after watching a video recorded in September 2021 by the former prime minister during an event of an organization affiliated to the religious group.
On Monday, a police team returned to the scene of the attack to once again review the scene and the footage of the incident, recorded while Abe was making a speech. EFE
mra/sc
