Lawyers: Abe murder suspect wants relief for church victims

NARA--Tetsuya Yamagami, the man accused of murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, hopes that relief will be provided to people victimized by the Unification Church, his lawyers said.

But the suspect will wait until his trial starts to open up about his feelings on the case, the lawyers told reporters here on April 6.

“It is most important for the defendant to directly explain himself in court,” one of his lawyers said. “We should refrain from saying what might lead to preconceived ideas (before the trial opens).”

Yamagami, 42, has the same opinion, the lawyers added.

Abe’s death in July last year turned the spotlight on relations between politicians and the church, now officially called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

It also highlighted the plight of children of church followers who have made huge donations to the religious organization.

A law has been enacted to conditionally allow followers’ family members to cancel such donations.

“I also hope that relief will be provided to victims of the Unification Church,” the lawyers quoted Yamagami as saying.

Yamagami told investigators that he held a grudge against the church because his family became impoverished after his mother, a church follower, made huge donations.

Accused of shooting Abe with a hand-made gun in Nara, Yamagami said he targeted the former prime minister because of his close ties to the church.

Yamagami was indicted on charges of murder and violating the firearms control law in January following a psychiatric evaluation that lasted for more than five months. Additional charges were filed in March.

Citizen judges will participate in his trial. A date has not been set for the first hearing.

Yamagami is being detained at the Osaka Detention House, not in Nara, due to security reasons.

He reads all the letters addressed to him, as well as newspapers, magazines and philosophy books, the lawyers said.

Abe was shot while he was campaigning for a candidate of his Liberal Democratic Party in the Upper House election outside a railway station.

Prosecutors decided not to charge Yamagami with obstructing free elections in violation of the Public Offices Election Law because of insuffiiecnt evidence.

A lawyer said there is little, if any, political background behind the case.

(This article was written by Nanami Watanabe and Tomonori Asada.)