A pre-trial hearing for the man accused of killing former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was cancelled Monday after a suspicious object was delivered to the court, local media said.
Tetsuya Yamagami had been due to appear on Monday afternoon for his first pretrial hearing at the Nara District Court over Abe’s broad-daylight assassination, which shocked the world in July last year.
But the site was evacuated after what appeared to be an “unidentified bag” was delivered to the court, NHK said, citing investigative sources. Similar reports were carried by other Japanese media outlets.
The Nara Prefectural Police later said the object was a cardboard box sealed with an adhesive tape, and the district court reported it to the police since a metal detector reacted to it.
Yamagami, 42, faces charges of murder and violation of arms control laws, and could face the death penalty if convicted.
He reportedly targeted Abe over the former leader’s ties to a religious organization known as the Unification Church, the global sect whose members are sometimes referred to as “Moonies.”
Yamagami is believed to have resented the church over large donations his mother made that bankrupted his family.
Abe, Japan’s best known politician and longest-serving prime minister, was shot with an apparently homemade gun while speaking at a campaign event on July 8.
The circumstances of the shooting have ignited scrutiny of what authorities admitted were security “shortcomings,” and led to the resignation of Japan’s police chief.
Yamagami, who underwent a psychiatric assessment which ended in January, spent three years in the Maritime Self-Defense Force following a childhood reportedly marred by his father’s suicide and his mother’s alleged neglect and devotion to church activities.
Details of his upbringing have stoked anger against the Unification Church and garnered sympathy for Yamagami — with supporters showing him support through donations and a petition calling for leniency.
The Unification Church is a global religious movement founded in Korea in the 1950s by self-styled messiah Sun Myung Moon.
In a letter published by Japanese media, Yamagami accused Abe of supporting the church and expressed resentment toward the group.
The church has confirmed his mother’s membership but refused to specify the sum of her donations, which reports said may have totaled around ¥100 million ($700,000).
Less than a year after Abe’s death, in April, a man hurled an explosive device toward Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shortly before he was due to deliver a campaign speech in the city of Wakayama.
Kishida escaped unharmed, but the fact that an assailant was able to throw the device at such close range so soon after the Abe murder prompted renewed criticism of security arrangements in Japan.–agencies
