Abe assassin Tetsuya Yamagami sentenced to life (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: A court in Japan has handed down a life sentence to Tetsuya Yamagami, the man who shot the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at an election rally three and a half years ago. Yamagami pleaded guilty to murder charges when the trial opened in October, but had contested some other indictments. Shinzo Abe was killed by a homemade weapon as he addressed a crowd. Prosecutors say Yamagami was motivated by his hatred of the Unification Church, which had close ties to Abe's Liberal Democratic Party. Our Tokyo correspondent Shaima Khalil has been following the case.

[00:00:37] Speaker 2: Tetsuya Yamagami was reported to be sitting, looking down in the court, quietly listening to that sentencing as it was read out with his hands on his lap clasped together. Outside before the sentencing, nearly 700 people had lined up to get one of the very limited seats inside the court to hear that sentence. Shinzo Abe's assassination by a homemade gun by Tetsuya Yamagami shocked Japan more than three years ago. But it also captured people's attention who wanted to know the motivation. And throughout this trial, we heard from Yamagami himself describing the hardships that he's faced growing up because of his mother's devotion to the controversial Unification Church. And that really went into the heart of the motivation behind the assassination of Shinzo Abe when Yamagami realized his links to the Unification Church, the strong links that he had to the church to the point where he appeared on some videos favorable to the church. And this is when he decided to assassinate him. And on that day in July 2022, he approached him, shooting him at close range with a homemade gun. And I think the shock in Japan was huge, not just because of who Shinzo Abe was, one of the most influential figures in Japan's politics and in Japan's culture, but also because gun violence is very rare in Japan, where there are very strict gun ownership laws. But I also think that the shock went beyond that, because after the assassination, deep investigations went into the Unification Church and its controversial practices, including soliciting ruinous and huge donations from its followers like Yamagami's mother did. It also exposed the links, strong links that the controversial church had to the Liberal Democratic Party, specifically to Mr. Abe's faction. And that led to a huge scandal, but also it led to resignations of cabinet ministers at the time. So the assassination itself was very shocking, but also the aftermath of the assassination continued to shock Japan.