Ex-PM Abe’s Killer to Decide Whether to Appeal Next Week

Osaka, Jan. 22 (Jiji Press)–The man sentenced to life in prison over the fatal shooting of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to decide next week whether to appeal, a professor said after meeting with him Thursday. Defendant Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, met with Yoshihide Sakurai, specially appointed professor of sociology of religion at Hokkaido University, who attended the trial as a defense witness. Sakurai told reporters that Yamagami appeared to have expected a long prison sentence and did not express dissatisfaction with the verdict. In the lay judge trial, Nara District Court on Wednesday handed Yamagami a life sentence as sought by prosecutors. The court said it could not accept that Yamagami’s family background had a decisive impact on his decision to kill Abe. Sakurai said Yamagami looked as usual and described the roughly three months of hearings as “tough.” Yamagami was convicted of murder and other charges over the July 2022 shooting of Abe during a campaign speech in Nara, western Japan. The defense had asked for a sentence of no more than 20 years, arguing that Yamagami’s troubled circumstances, heavily affected by the religious group known as the Unification Church, amounted to abuse. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]