Japan Lawmaker Sato Testifies at Abe Shooter Trial

Nara, Oct. 29 (Jiji Press)--Japanese lawmaker Kei Sato, who was at the scene of the shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the western Japan city of Nara in 2022, appeared in the trial of the suspect, Tetsuya Yamagami, as a witness Wednesday, expressing his resentment and grief over the fatal attack.

“At that time, I was there with mixed feelings of anger and sadness, while crying,” Sato, 46, a member of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, said during the second hearing of the trial at Nara District Court.

Abe was shot by Yamagami, 45, with a homemade gun on July 8, 2022 while delivering a stump speech for Sato, who was running in the Upper House election that month, near a train station in Nara. Abe was confirmed dead later that day after he was rushed to hospital.

“I heard a sound I’d never heard before, twice,” Sato, also deputy chief cabinet secretary, said, recalling how he bent down when he heard the first gunshot and ran to Abe, who fell onto the ground, after the second.

He continued: “(Abe) was bleeding from around his neck. Although his eyes were open, I thought his condition was critical. To check if he was conscious, I said to him in a loud voice, ‘Prime minister, prime minister.'”

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]