BY JOEL CALAMBA ESCOL, Managing Editor
MDNN Tokyo News Bureau – Little is known about the suspect who assassinated the longest-serving prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe.
But according to MDNN news sources, the suspect Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, is a resident of Nara City in Japan, a place where he also assassinated the former prime minister of the country.
The late Shinzo Abe was shot twice by the suspect in the morning of July 8, 2022, while delivering his campaign speech. However, Yamagami missed in his first shot on his target, and so he decided to open fire once again that hit Abe’s chest.
Who is Tetsuya Yamagami?
The suspected killer of Shinzo Abe was a resident of Nara, Japan. Based on MDNN’s research team, he was formerly connected with the Japanese navy identified as JMSDF, or otherwise known as Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force. But it was not also clear why he stopped working with the JMSDF.
The suspected killer was also arrested by the security forces a few minutes after he had successfully hit the prime minister and attempted to escape. A home-made gun was taken from his possession, according to the local media.
During a follow up raid on the suspect’s rented apartment, police operatives also found similar home-made weapons, and they have also confiscated Yamagami’s personal computer hoping to get more information about the suspect. His neighbors in the rented apartment has also little knowledge who is Tetsuya Yamagami.
During an interrogation with police authorities, the suspect said he killed Abe on suspicion he had ties with the Unification Church founded by Sun Myung Moon from South Korea. The religious group’s founder allegedly tagged himself as the “modern Messiah,” it was learned.
The suspect told investigators his mother donated a huge sum of money amounting to $720,000 to the Unification Church which made their family financially bankrupt in 2020. But the said church did not confirm Yamagami’s donation allegation during a press conference.
Yamagami blame the church
The tagged assassin of Japan’s most respected politician and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has blamed his ‘misfortune’ to the Unification Church.
In an interview with the local media in Japan, his uncle claimed that the suspected ‘killer’ has plans of going back to school in 2002 but this was the time when the family was already financially bankrupt, allegedly because of his mom’s huge donations of $720,000 (P39 Million in the Phils).
His uncle told the media this situation angered Yamagami, as he could no longer go back to school. This also started his evil plans of killing the leader of the unification church.
Yamagami, reports said, wanted to go to Korea, where the leader Sun Myung Moon, could be located. Sun Myung Moon founded the unification church many decades ago. The group, back in 2000, expanded their organization in many parts of the world, including the Philippines. In those so-called “golden years” of the movement there were lots of events that unfold, including the widely publicized and most controversial ‘male order bride issues.’
Yamagami’s mom confirmed member
Yamagami’s mom became a follower of the Family Federation for World Peace, otherwise known as the “Unification Church” several years after the suspect’s father committed suicide and died in 1984, it was learned.
“I believe she was a very important follower of the church. She was under mind control,” Yamagami’s uncle said.
The uncle said even when the family was financially bankrupt in 2002, the mother continued to donate smaller donations to the unification church.
This huge sum of money donated by the mother angered Yamagami until he made up his mind to kill the leader of the religious organization.
In a separate interview with the country’s local media, it was also reported that the unification church confirmed that a total of ¥50 million was already returned to the mother.
