New Delhi, Oct. 28 -- Tetsuya Yamagami, the man accused of assassinating Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on Tuesday pled guilty, three years after the crime shocked the world.

The 45-year-old was accused of murder and of using a handmade weapon to shoot Abe dead.

"Everything is true," Yamagami said in court on Tuesday.

Abe was shot on 8 July 2022 while giving a speech near the Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara City, Nara Prefecture. Although he was airlifted for immediate medical attention, he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Tetsuo Yamagami, 45, is expected to seek leniency on the grounds that his family had broken down under the influence of the group formerly known as the Unification Church, according to Kyodo. He filed...