Shinzo Abe: Suspect admits killing ex-PM over 'rumours', say Japanese police

euronews.com:

Police in Japan have said the suspect in the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was arrested at the scene in the western city of Nara and has admitted to the attack.

41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami told investigators he had plotted to kill him because he believed rumours about the former leader's connection to a certain organisation that police did not identify — according to Kazuhisa Yamamura, the Head of First Investigation Division, Nara Prefecture Police.

Local media, citing police sources, said Yamagami told police he believed Abe was linked to a religious group he blamed for ruining his mother financially and breaking up the family.

"He (Yamagami) confessed that he had some resentment against a certain organisation and was under the impression of the former prime minister having some connection to it, which led to the act. I would like to avoid further details," Yamamura told a news conference.

Abe was assassinated Friday on a street by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech at a rally — an attack that stunned a nation with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

Police said Yamagami used a gun that was obviously homemade — about 40 centimetres long — and they confiscated similar weapons and his personal computer when they raided his nearby one-room apartment. A 90-member strong task force had been launched to investigate the shooting.

Campaigning resumed on the final day of electioneering before polling for the upper house of parliament, which is expected to deliver victory to the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, an Abe protege.

Kishida has been back on the campaign trail visiting regional constituencies after making an emergency return to