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The Japanese Prosecutor’s Office has requested this Thursday the life sentence to Tetsuya Yamagami, accused of assassinate former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a homemade weapon in 2022, during the last session of his trial, which began in late October.
Yamagami, 45, already pleaded guilty of the charges since the beginning of the process, so all attention is now focused on the harshness of the sentence, which is expected to be issued in mid-January.
Before the prosecutors’ request was known, the widow of the former president, Akie Abeasked the accused “to face what he did and pay for his crimes,” in a statement read in the courtroom by a lawyer.
“The feeling of loss over the sudden loss of my husband will never disappear. I ask the accused to face what he did and pay for his crimes,” she said, in statements reported by the public broadcaster NHK.
The woman was present two weeks ago at one of the trial hearings, although she did not exercise her right to question Yamagami under a system that allows victims or relatives to question defendants in serious cases.
Yamagami has claimed he shot Abe over his alleged ties to the religious group known as the Unification Church, or ‘Moon cult’, which he accused of capturing his mother and bankrupting his family.
The crime shocked the world and, at the same time, uncovered a scandal over the links of some members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) with the controversial organization.
The assassination caused many victims of the creed in Japan to bring their stories to light, especially children of members who claim to have been robbed and extorted by their parents to give their assets to the group.
Last March, a Japanese court ordered the dissolution of the ‘Moon sect’, founded in 1954 in South Korea, as a religious organization, although the group appealed the decision and the judicial process continues.