Tetsuya Yamagami, who last month was sentenced to life in prison for the 2022 assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is appealing the case to a higher court, an official at the Nara District Court said Wednesday.
Wednesday was the deadline for him to file an appeal against the Jan. 21 ruling by the Nara court. Yamagami agreed to appeal after strong persuasion from his lawyers, domestic media reported, quoting informed sources.
Yamagami was convicted of killing the former prime minister with a homemade gun during the influential politician¡¯s campaign rally in Nara in July 2022.
The life sentence was in line with what prosecutors had requested. The defense team, which did not contest the basic facts surrounding the murder that took place in broad daylight, had asked that Yamagami¡¯s sentence be capped at 20 years or less, saying their client deserved a chance to make a fresh start in society.
In the lay judge trial that started last October, Yamagami said that his mother¡¯s blind faith in the Unification Church and her endless donations to it had destroyed his family and made him want to target Abe, whom he regarded as an ally of the religious group.
The defense team sought leniency for Yamagami, saying he was a victim of religious abuse by his mother. The mother remains faithful to the controversial group, formally called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and known for mass weddings as well as aggressive fundraising activities.
The judges in the trial acknowledged Yamagami¡¯s tragic upbringing in the ruling, but said it did not constitute grounds for leniency. They ruled that he was an independent adult well aware of the antisocial nature of killing somebody ¡ª a point the defense lawyers voiced strong dissatisfaction with after the ruling.
Life imprisonment without parole does not exist in Japan, and those sentenced as such can be eligible for parole after serving 10 years. But in reality, few are released on parole, according to the Justice Ministry.
In 2024, of the 1,650 convicts serving a life sentence, only one was released on parole after serving nearly 38 years, while 32 died in prison. The average amount of time those with a life sentence spent in prison stood at 38 years and one month as of that year.
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