The gunman charged with killing Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe was found guilty and jailed for life on Wednesday, more than three years after the broad-daylight assassination shocked the world.
Judge Shinichi Tanaka handed down the sentence at a court in the city of Nara.
The slaying forced a reckoning in a country with little experience of gun violence and ignited scrutiny of alleged ties between prominent conservative lawmakers and a secretive sect, the Unification Church .
On Wednesday morning, a queue of people waited to get tickets to enter the courtroom, highlighting intense public interest in the trial.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, faced charges including murder and firearms control law violations for using a handmade gun to kill Japan ’s longest-serving leader during his campaign speech in July 2022.
As the trial opened in October, Yamagami admitted to murder. He contested some of the other charges, media reports said.
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