Abe Killer Yamagami's Defense Appeals Indefinite Sentence

Nara, Feb. 4 (Jiji Press)--The defense for Tetsuya Yamagami filed an appeal with Osaka High Court on Wednesday to challenge the indefinite prison term handed down by Nara District Court for the 2022 murder of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"Following discussions with the defendant, we submitted appeal papers to the high court to get an opportunity to rectify the unfair lower court verdict," the defense said. In the appeal trial, the defendant side is expected not only to argue that the sentence was inappropriate but also to enter a not guilty plea again to the crime of discharging a firearm under the firearms and swords control law.

The focus of the trial was on the severity of the punishment, as the 45-year-old defendant admitted the murder charge. The defense argued that Yamagami's sentence should be no more than 20 years, as his troubled background related to the controversial religious group Unification Church constituted "religious abuse" and was closely related to the motive for the crime, which should be the most important factor in sentencing.

In the Jan. 21 ruling of the lay-judge trial, the district court said that while the defendant's background could not be denied to have been a remote cause of the crime, it could not be said to have greatly influenced his decision to kill Abe.

The defendant side claimed that a weapon Yamagami made himself did not meet stipulations for guns in the firearms and swords control law. The court rejected this, however, concluding that the weapon was powerful enough to kill or injure a person, and handed down an indefinite prison sentence as sought by prosecutors.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]