Fumio Kishida, Japan’s former prime minister, was attempted murder by a guy who was given a 10-year jail sentence in 2023.
Ryuji Kimura, 25, hurled a pipe bomb at Kishida as the country’s leader approached a crowd for a speech during an election event in the city of Wakayama.
A police agent and a member of the public were only seriously hurt when the dessert device’s explosion occurred, despite Kishida being uninjured.
The strike shocked Japan because it occurred less than a year after Shinzo Abe was fatally shot at an outdoors election campaign event.
Kimura, who was sentenced on Wednesday, claimed during questioning his intent was not to destroy Kishida, but to subject to the country’s vote years regulation which prevented him from getting into politics.
He added that he threw the weapon to bring the case against him in court in 2022, which was dismissed.
Given the severity of Kimura’s wounds, a three-year jail sentence would be appropriate, and he should not be accused of attempted murder, according to Kimura’s defense.
The jury stated, nevertheless, that the bombs were strong sufficiently to cause fatal injury.
Presiding determine Keiko Fukushima remarked in the decision that “targeting a serving prime minister caused considerable anxiety to world as a whole.”
Kimura was found guilty of violating weapon control laws and regulations in addition to the attempted murder charge.
His 10-year word is five times less than what the prosecution had requested.
In Japan, despite being extremely uncommon, aggressive assassinations have become more common in the midst of Abe’s murder in 2022.
Less than a year after the intended invasion on Kishida, one that raised concerns about why there wasn’t a more secure environment around the nation’s leader at the time.