Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The man accused of killing former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022 pleaded guilty to the assassination on Tuesday.
Tetsuo Yamagami, 45, told Judge Shinichi Tanaka, in his first public appearance since the killing, that he murdered Abe because he blamed him for religious abuse he suffered in his youth.
"Everything is true," Yamagami told the court in his first hearing for the crime, adding that "there is no mistake that I did it."
Yamagami's attorneys requested leniency from the court because their client had been victimized during his upbringing, because his mother, who is set to be a witness in the trial, was a follower of the Unification Church.
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