NARA, Japan Kyodo police on Monday referred a man, indicted for murder of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to prosecutors for allegedly making a gun and damaging a building by test-firing it, according to investigative sources.
The additional allegations against 42 year-old Tetsuya Yamagami are expected to cap the police investigation into the deadly incident that shook the entire nation and the events that led up to it, while its aftershocks continue to reverberate.
Yamagami is believed to have shot a weapon at a facility in Nara, connected to the Unification Church on July 7, a day before the fatal shooting, in addition to making handguns and gunpowder without authorization, they said.
In January, after months of psychiatric evaluations by the prosecutors, the former Maritime Self-Defense Force member was indicted for murder and violating the firearms control law.
Abe, Japan's longest-serving leader, died on July 8 after being shot at close range while giving a campaign speech in the western city two days ahead of a House of Councillors election. Yamagami was arrested on the spot.
He told investigators he had held a grudge against the Unification Church, a South Korea-based religious group known for its mass weddings and aggressive donation solicitations after his mother's substantial financial donations caused their family to fall apart.
He said that he targeted Abe because Nobusuke Kishi, his grandfather and former prime minister, invited him into Japan. Kishi has strong ties with an anti-communist group launched by the church in 1968.
The assassination has brought to light the links between politicians, particularly members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the controversial church, as well as the traumas experienced by second generation family members of religious groups and their daily struggles.
The government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pushed to enact a law banning organizations from maliciously soliciting donations, which was subject to scrutiny and pressure from the public. The law took effect in January.
Some of the people who have sympathized with Yamagami have sent him food, clothes and cash totaling over 1 million yen $7,500 from across the country, according to sources familiar with the matter. One of the sources quoted him as saying that he wants to use the money for the people suffering from the harm wrought by the Unification Church.