The Japanese court where the trial of the alleged assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was to take place was evacuated on Monday after a suspicious object was found, local media reported.
Tetsuya Yamagami was to appear this afternoon before the Nara court (western Japan), in the framework of a preliminary hearing in the trial for the murder of the former leader last July, when he was shot dead in the street, during a campaign event electoral. .
The venue was evacuated after what appeared to be an “unidentified bag” arrived at the courthouse, state broadcaster NHK reported, citing police sources. Other Japanese media reported similar information.
Contacted by news agency France-Presse, the court and local police could not immediately comment.
Yamagami, 42, was charged in January with “murder and violation of the law” on gun control and faces the death penalty if convicted.
The suspect accused the former Japanese prime minister of having close ties to the Unification Church, nicknamed the “Moon Sect,” which led to the ruin of Yamagami’s family.
Yamagami was found fit to stand trial earlier this year at the end of a lengthy psychiatric examination.
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s best-known political figure both at home and abroad, broke the record for the longest tenure of a sitting prime minister in the nation: more than eight and a half years between 2006-2007 and 2012- 2020.
Source: TSF
