The gunman accused of killing Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe pled guilty on Tuesday, October 28th, three years after the assassination in broad daylight shocked the world.
“Everything is true,” Tetsuya Yamagami said at a court in the western city of Nara, admitting murder of the country’s longest-serving leader in July 2022.
Yamagami reportedly resented Abe for his perceived ties to the Unification Church, which was established in South Korea in 1954 and whose members are nicknamed “Moonies” after its founder Sun Myung Moon.
The Church has been accused of fomenting child neglect among its members and financially exploiting them, claims it denies.
Yamagami was said to have held a grudge against the Church for bankrupting his family after his mother donated around 100 million yen ($1 million at the time) as proof of her faith.
Investigations after Abe’s murder led to cascading revelations about close ties between the Church and many conservative lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, prompting four ministers to resign.
Earlier this year, the Tokyo District Court issued a dissolution order for the Church’s Japanese arm, saying it caused “unprecedented damage” to society.
