A group of lawyers said Friday that the alleged assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was one of many victims of the Unification Church, which has long cultivated ties with high-level Japanese politicians.
The church, founded in South Korea in the 1950s, has become a focus of intense attention in Japan because the suspect in Abe's shooting, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, told investigators that he was motivated by Abe's supposed links to the Unification Church, which he said his mother had made massive donations to, bankrupting the family and destroying his life.
