A court in western Japan sentenced a man to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after having found him guilty of having tried to assassinate the Prime Minister two years ago with a house bomb.
The city of the city of Wakayama said Ryuji Kimura, 25, guilty of attempted murder and four accusations related to the possession of explosives. In his decision, the court said that Mr. Kimura had sought to kill the Prime Minister at the time, Fumio Kishida, when he Throw the device inside a room in April 2023.
Mr. Kishida was about to speak to political supporters when the attack occurred. The prosecutors had asked for a 15 -year sentence for the striker, who, according to the court, acted out of the public’s attention. Kimura had denied the attempted accusation of murder, saying that he had not intended to kill.
The attack shocked Japan not only because such acts of violence are rare in the country, but also because it took place less than a year after the assassination of a previous Prime Minister. In July 2022, Shinzo Abe was shot In a street in Nara, which is near Wakayama, by an unhappy man who had made the weapon himself.
The details of Mr. Abe’s security was then blamed for allowing the shooter to withdraw two shots from the former Prime Minister, who made a campaign speech. It was the second blow, which struck Mr. Abe in the chest, which turned out to be fatal.
During the attack on Mr. Kishida, the Prime Minister’s security detail precipitated him in safety before the bomb was triggered. The small explosion of the device, which seemed to be a pipe filled with cannon powder, injured two people in the corridor of Wakayama, a port city south of Osaka.
After launching the aircraft, Mr. Kimura was struggled on the ground by security details and public members, who were supporters of Mr. Kishida’s party. When the police searched Mr. Kimura’s backpack, they found a second explosive handmade in addition to the barrel powder and a knife.
A later search of Mr. Kimura’s house found another cannon powder book and more pipes.
In his decision, the court said that Mr. Kimura, who was unemployed, had tried to kill the Prime Minister by the desire to draw the attention of the public. He said he had planned the attack after his publications on social networks were not obtained a lot of response.
The court said that the bombs have determined that the improvised apparatus was strong enough for killing Mr. Kishida if he had exploded near him.
