The perpetrator, Tetsuya Yamagami, has been detained for six months at the Osaka Detention Center and has undergone several psychiatric examinations, and the authorities concluded that he was fit to answer criminally for his actions, according to the national press.

The indictment alleges that Yamagami shot Abe twice, at close range, with a homemade gun. In addition, he possessed several compatible bullets and gunpowder.

It also alleges that the 42-year-old unemployed Japanese man acted premeditatedly, as he relied on the timing of Abe’s election speeches to execute the shooting at the most opportune moment.

Abe was shot dead last July 8, in Nara Prefecture, while promoting the vote in favor of the candidates of his Liberal Democratic Party in the days prior to the elections of the House of Councilors of the Diet (Parliament).

According to investigators, the accused stated during interrogations that he killed the former president because of his ties to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, a controversial South Korean-based religious group that he blames for his mother’s alleged financial bankruptcy.

An exact date has yet to be set, but local press reports indicate that a lay judge will preside over the trial, at which time the circumstances and motives of the fatal event will be clarified.

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