Japan prosecutors indict man for murder over Shinzo Abe assassination

Japanese prosecutors on Friday indicted the man accused of killing former prime minister Shinzo Abe for murder and violation of gun control laws, local media said.

Tetsuya Yamagami was detained immediately after the former Japanese premier was gunned down last July while giving a campaign speech in the western city of Nara.

Abe’s last moments

Spectators at the event were able to approach him fairly easily.

Footage broadcast by NHK shows him standing on a stage when a loud blast was heard, and smoke was visible in the air.

Yamagami is then seen being tackled to the ground by security.

“He was giving a speech, and a man came from behind,” a young woman at the scene told NHK at the time.

“The first shot sounded like a toy. He didn’t fall, and there was a large bang. The second shot was more visible; you could see the spark and smoke,” she added.

“After the second shot, people surrounded him and gave him a cardiac massage.”

Abe, 67, collapsed and was bleeding from the neck.

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Abe laid to rest

Japanese and foreign dignitaries paid tribute to the assassinated former prime minister at a state funeral last September that drew both mourners and protesters to central Tokyo.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the former leader as a “person of courage” in a eulogy, listing his achievements, including efforts to strengthen Japan’s diplomatic ties.

“I feel heart-breaking grief,” Kishida said as he faced a photograph of Abe that was hung above a grand floral structure used to display his ashes, medals and the Japanese flag.

The decorative box of ashes had been carried by his widow Akie into Tokyo’s storied Budokan venue, where a 19-gun salute sounded in honour of the slain politician.

Abe was Japan’s longest-serving prime minister and one of the country’s most recognisable political figures, known for cultivating international alliances and his “Abenomics” economic strategy.

He resigned in 2020 over recurring health problems but remained a key political voice and was campaigning for his ruling party when a lone gunman killed him with a homemade weapon on July 8.

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