The gunman charged with killing Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe was found guilty and jailed for life, as the judge declared the broad- daylight assassination “despicable and extremely malicious”. As he handed down the sentence at a court in the city of Nara, judge Shinichi Tanaka said Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, had been “determined” to shoot Abe. The fact he “shot him from behind and did so when (Abe) was least expecting it” points to the “despicable and extremely malicious” nature of his act, he said. A queue of people waited yesterday morning for tickets to enter the courtroom, highlighting inten­se public interest in the trial. Prosecutors had argued that the defendant’s motive to kill Abe was rooted in his desire to besmirch the Unification Church, to which his mother’s blind donations plun­ged his family into bankruptcy.

Source: The Star January 22, 2026 11:27 UTC