NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

The man held on suspicion of assassinating former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe believed he was linked to a religious group he blamed for his mother’s financial ruin, police have said. 

Mr Abe, 67, was shot twice from behind at close range while giving a speech at a campaign rally in the western city of Nara. He bled to death after sustaining two deep wounds to the neck and left collarbone. 

The last time a former or sitting prime minister was killed was nearly 90 years ago. 

Prime suspect Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, allegedly spent months plotting the killing and manufactured the gun himself by taping together steel pipes and other materials purchased online. 

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The unemployed loner was convinced Mr Abe had promoted an unnamed religious group that his mother went bankrupt donating money to, according to the country’s Kyodo news agency.  

He is quoted as telling police: ‘My mother got wrapped up in a religious group and I resented it.’ 

Local media also reported that Yamagami had attended other campaign events featuring Mr Abe and considered using a bomb in his attack before settling on a firearm. 

He was quickly identified as the suspect after footage beamed around the world showed a man calmly approaching Japan’s longest-serving PM from behind and firing. 

Wiry and bespectacled with shaggy hair, he was seen stepping into the road behind Abe before unloading two shots from a 16-inch-long weapon wrapped with black tape.  

The suspect was tackled by police at the scene. 

Neighbours told Reuters Yamagami was a loner who never replied when they tried speaking to him. 

One of them, a 69-year-old woman living below him identified only by her surname Nakayama, recalled an encounter three days before the shooting: ‘I said hello, but he ignored me.  

‘He was just looking down at the ground to the side not wearing a mask. He seemed nervous. 

‘I saw him a couple of times. I bowed to him in the elevator, but he didn’t say anything.’ 

Japanese naval records show that a person named Tetsuya Yamagami served in the Maritime Self-Defence Force from 2002 until 2005. 

But a spokesman for the navy declined to say whether it was the suspected killer, as has been widely reported. 

They revealed that the Yamagami enlisted joined a training unit in Sasebo, a major navy base in the southwest, and was assigned to a destroyer artillery section. 

He was later assigned to a training ship in Hiroshima. 

The spokesman said: ‘During their service, members of the Self-Defence Force train with live ammunition once a year. They also do breakdowns and maintenance of guns. 

‘But as they are following orders when they do it, it’s hard to believe they gain enough knowledge to be able make guns.’  

He added that even army soldiers who serve ‘for a long time don’t know how to make guns’. 

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