Trial of Tetsuya Yamagami, alleged killer of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, brings gun laws into focus

Japanese prosecutors on Friday indicted the man suspected of killing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to local media. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that the Nara District Public Prosecutors Office indicted the assailant, Tetsuya Yamagami, 42, on murder charges, reports Xinhua news agency.

He was also indicted for violating Japan's gun control laws, the report said.

The formal charges came following Yamagami undergoing an extended six-month psychiatric trial to determine whether he was mentally fit to be held criminally responsible for his actions.

Yamagami was arrested on the spot on July 8 last year after allegedly shooting the former Prime Minister at close range with a handmade gun while the latter was delivering a speech in the western prefecture of Nara, just two days ahead of upper house elections.

Yamagami, a former Maritime Self-Defense Force worker, allegedly held a grudge against the controversial Unification Church for financially ruining his family by soliciting huge amounts of money in donations from his mother.

This amounted to around 100 million yen ($774,000).

The killer reportedly believed Abe had links to and had promoted the dubious organisation and claimed this factored in to his reason for assassinating the former Prime Minister.

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