The Evening Wrap: Shinzo Abe, former Japan Prime Minister, assassinated

Former Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader, died on Friday after being shot while campaigning for a parliamentary election, public broadcaster NHK said. A man opened fire on Abe, 67, from behind with an apparently homemade gun as he spoke at a drab traffic island in the western city of Nara, Japanese media showed earlier. It was the first assassination of a sitting or former Japanese premier since the days of pre-war militarism in the 1930s. Speaking before Abe’s death was announced, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the shooting in the “strongest terms” while Japanese people and world leaders expressed shock at the violence in a country in which political violence is rare and guns are tightly controlled. “This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections -- the very foundation of our democracy -- and is absolutely unforgivable,” said Kishida, struggling to keep his emotions in check. A fire department official had said Abe appeared to be in a state of cardiac arrest when airlifted to hospital. Police said a 41-year-old man suspected of carrying out the shooting had been arrested. NHK quoted the suspect, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, as telling police he was dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him. Abe was making a campaign speech outside a train station when two shots rang out at about 11:30 a.m. (8 a.m. IST). Security officials were then seen tackling a man in a grey T-shirt and beige trousers. “There was a loud bang and then smoke,” businessman Makoto Ichikawa, who was at the scene, told Reuters, adding that the gun was the size of a television camera. “The first shot, no one knew what was going on, but after the second shot, what looked like special police tackled him.” Earlier, Kyodo news service published a photograph of Abe lying face-up on the street by a guardrail, blood on his white shirt. People were crowded around him, one administering heart massage. Nara emergency services said he had been wounded on the right side of his neck and left clavicle. His brother, Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi, had said Abe was getting blood transfusions. NHK showed live footage of Abe’s wife, Akie, on her way by train to the hospital where he was being treated. Airo Hino, political science professor at Waseda University, said such a shooting was unprecedented in Japan. “There has never been anything like this,” he said. Senior Japanese politicians are accompanied by armed security agents but often get close to the public, especially during political campaigns when they make roadside speeches and shake hands with passersby. In 2007, the mayor of Nagasaki was shot and killed by a yakuza gangster. The head of the Japan Socialist Party was assassinated during a speech in 1960 by a right-wing youth with a samurai short sword. A few other prominent postwar politicians were attacked but not injured. Police said the suspected shooter was a resident of Nara. Media said he had served in Japan’s military for three years until 2005. Defence Minister Kishi declined to comment on that. Abe served two terms as Prime Minister, stepping down in 2020 citing ill health. But he has remained a dominant presence over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), controlling one of its major factions. Kishida, Abe’s protege, had been hoping to use the election to emerge from Abe’s shadow and define his premiership, analysts have said. Kishida suspended his election campaign after the shooting. All main political parties condemned the attack. Mohammed Zubair gets interim bail from Supreme Court in Sitapur case, but will stay in jail over another case The Supreme Court on Friday granted limited interim bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in an FIR registered by the Sitapur Police in Uttar Pradesh for insulting religious feelings. The Uttar Pradesh Police had registered a case against Zubair on the basis of a complaint that he had tweeted “offensive words towards mahants of religious places symbolising our faith and thereby hurting our religious sentiments”. Zubair had appealed to stay the investigation into the “absurd” charges and subsequently quash the FIR registered at Sitapur. Zubair will however remain in judicial custody in a separate FIR registered by the Delhi Police. This case had not come up before the Supreme Court. The court was only concerned with the U.P. case. The Bench also made it clear that Zubair will not put up any tweets or tamper with evidence, electronic or otherwise. The order will also not impede the investigation, seizure of evidence in the Sitapur case. The Vacation Bench said the case will now come up before a Regular Bench when the court reopens. ED slaps penalities on Amnesty India International, Aakar Patel The Adjudicating Authority of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has imposed a penalty of ₹51.72 crore on Amnesty India International Private Limited (AIIPL) and ₹10 crore on its former Chief Executive Officer Aakar Patel in connection with alleged violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in 2019. The ED’s inquiry was initiated on the basis of information that Amnesty International, United Kingdom, had been remitting “huge amounts of foreign contribution” through its Indian entities, not registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), through the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) route. It was allegedly done to expand its non government organisation (NGO) activities in India despite the denial of prior registration or permissions to the Amnesty International India Foundation Trust (AIIFT) and other trusts under the FCRA by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The showcause notice issued by the ED had said that between November 2013 and June 2018, the remittance which was received by the AIIPL – and claimed as receipt for business/management consultancy and public relation services for export of services to foreign beneficiary – was nothing but the amount borrowed from the overseas sender, thereby violating the FEMA provisions. “After getting a detailed reply from the AIIPL and following the principal of natural justice, the Adjudicating Authority of ED has held that the AIIPL is an umbrella entity under Amnesty International Limited, UK, which was declared to be set up for the cause of social activities in India,” said the agency. However, the agency alleged, the AIIPL was involved in many activities that were not relevant to its declared commercial business, and a circumventing model had been used to route the foreign funds under the guise of business activities to escape the FCRA scrutiny. “All contentions and submission from the AIIPL regarding the claim of the remittance towards the export of services to Amnesty International have been dismissed, in the absence of concrete evidence,” it said. As a result, more than ₹51.72 crore received by the AIIPL through inward remittances was “nothing but the fund lent by the Amnesty International to the AIIPL to ensure its objectives in the territorial jurisdiction of India, which is not accordance with the provisions of Regulation 3 of the Foreign Exchange Management (borrowing and lending in Foreign Exchange) Regulations, 2000”. The ED had earlier attached assets worth ₹19.54 crore in connection with a money laundering case involving the AIIPL, Indians for Amnesty International Trust (IAIT), AIIFT and the Amnesty International South Asia Foundation. The case is based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging FCRA violation. As alleged, the AIIFT was granted permission under the FCRA during 2011-12 for receiving foreign contributions from the Amnesty International, U.K. However, based on adverse inputs from security agencies, it was cancelled. Then, the IAIT and the AIIPL were formed in 2012-13 and 2013-14 to “escape the FCRA route and carried out NGO activities in the guise of service export and FDI”. Doctored Rahul Gandhi video | Congress MPs ask Speaker for action against three BJP lawmakers As many as 11 Lok Sabha MPs of the Congress have written to Speaker Om Birla against the “unthical conduct” of BJP parliamentarians Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Subrat Pathak and Bhola Singh of sharing a distorted and fake video of Rahul Gandhi that they said could pose a threat to the country’s social fabric and demanded his swift intervention. The Congress MPs, including leader of the party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, have urged him to refer their complaint to the Ethics Committee of Parliament for examination and necessary action. They alleged that Rathore, Pathak and Singh had shared a distorted video of Rahul Gandhi, falsely linking his statement on Kerala SFI activists for vandalising his Wayanad office to suggest that he had demonstrated sympathy for the killers of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur. The video was run by a TV channel which later withdrew it and tendered apology. The Congress MPs alleged that the video was distorted in order to “mislead, incite and provoke” the public. It was clear that the doctored clip was designed to create a dangerously false impression in the minds of the viewers regarding his position on the heinous killing in Udaipur, defame him, and incite anger towards him by creating the impression that he was condoning a violent and horrific crime and foment social tensions in an already sensitive and polarised environment, the Congress MPs said. They alleged that the BJP lawmakers shared the fake and distorted news on their social media accounts for the sole purpose of spreading disinformation. The doctored clip was widely amplified on social media with a malicious intent to incite physical harm against him, and further vitiate the environment of hatred, the Congress MPs said. “This highly irresponsible conduct deserves to be condemned unequivocally,” the letter said. “We, as MPs and members of Indian National Congress, turn to your good office and the Parliamentary Committee set up expressly to examine any complaint against the unethical conduct of members of the Lok Sabha. In order to deter such egregious conduct in the future, a swift, categorical and effective intervention should be made,” the Congres MPs told the Speaker. They also said parliamentarians are elected to their office with an explicit mandate to uphold the Constitution and to act in the service of the public. Members are expected to maintain high standards of morality, dignity, decency, and values in public life. “We, thus have a greater duty towards our fellow citizens. For parliamentarians to act in an irresponsible manner, or a manner that threatens our social fabric, amounts to grossly unethical conduct. In view of the above-mentioned unethical conduct of the parliamentarians, we request you to exercise your power under the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha and refer the matter to the Committee on Ethics for urgent examination and action,” they noted. The Congress lawmakers have contended the offence is all the more egregious since the BJP MPs were aware that the video was distorted and presented in an “entirely baseless and false” context. The signatories to the letter include Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, K. Suresh, Manickam Tagore, Ravneet Singh, M.K. Raghavan, D.K. Suresh, Santokh Singh Chaudhary, K. Jeyakumar, Anto Antony, and S. Jothi Mani. In Brief U.S. President Joe Biden will take executive action Friday to protect access to abortion, the White House said, as he faces mounting pressure from fellow Democrats to be more forceful on the subject after the Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to the procedure two weeks ago. The White House said Biden will speak Friday morning “on protecting access to reproductive health care services”. The actions he was expected to outline are intended to try to mitigate some potential penalties women seeking abortion may face after the ruling but are limited in their ability to safeguard access to abortion nationwide. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 08 JULY 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Shinzo Abe, former Japan Prime Minister, assassinated Former Japan Prime Minister [Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader, died on Friday after being shot]( while campaigning for a parliamentary election, public broadcaster NHK said. A man opened fire on Abe, 67, from behind with an apparently homemade gun as he spoke at a drab traffic island in the western city of Nara, Japanese media showed earlier. It was the first assassination of a sitting or former Japanese premier since the days of pre-war militarism in the 1930s. [Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes a speech before he was shot from behind by a man in Nara, western Japan on July 8, 2022 in this photo taken by The Asahi Shimbun. Photo: The Asahi Shimbun via Reuters] Speaking before Abe’s death was announced, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the shooting in the “strongest terms” while Japanese people and world leaders expressed shock at the violence in a country in which political violence is rare and guns are tightly controlled. “This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections -- the very foundation of our democracy -- and is absolutely unforgivable,” said Kishida, struggling to keep his emotions in check. A fire department official had said Abe appeared to be in a state of cardiac arrest when airlifted to hospital. Police said a 41-year-old man suspected of carrying out the shooting had been arrested. NHK quoted the suspect, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, as telling police he was dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him. Abe was making a campaign speech outside a train station when two shots rang out at about 11:30 a.m. (8 a.m. IST). Security officials were then seen tackling a man in a grey T-shirt and beige trousers. “There was a loud bang and then smoke,” businessman Makoto Ichikawa, who was at the scene, told Reuters, adding that the gun was the size of a television camera. “The first shot, no one knew what was going on, but after the second shot, what looked like special police tackled him.” Earlier, Kyodo news service published a photograph of Abe lying face-up on the street by a guardrail, blood on his white shirt. People were crowded around him, one administering heart massage. Nara emergency services said he had been wounded on the right side of his neck and left clavicle. His brother, Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi, had said Abe was getting blood transfusions. NHK showed live footage of Abe’s wife, Akie, on her way by train to the hospital where he was being treated. Airo Hino, political science professor at Waseda University, said such a shooting was unprecedented in Japan. “There has never been anything like this,” he said. Senior Japanese politicians are accompanied by armed security agents but often get close to the public, especially during political campaigns when they make roadside speeches and shake hands with passersby. In 2007, the mayor of Nagasaki was shot and killed by a yakuza gangster. The head of the Japan Socialist Party was assassinated during a speech in 1960 by a right-wing youth with a samurai short sword. A few other prominent postwar politicians were attacked but not injured. Police said the suspected shooter was a resident of Nara. Media said he had served in Japan’s military for three years until 2005. Defence Minister Kishi declined to comment on that. Abe served two terms as Prime Minister, stepping down in 2020 citing ill health. But he has remained a dominant presence over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), controlling one of its major factions. Kishida, Abe’s protege, had been hoping to use the election to emerge from Abe’s shadow and define his premiership, analysts have said. Kishida suspended his election campaign after the shooting. All main political parties condemned the attack. Mohammed Zubair gets interim bail from Supreme Court in Sitapur case, but will stay in jail over another case The [Supreme Court on Friday granted limited interim bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair]( in an FIR registered by the Sitapur Police in Uttar Pradesh for insulting religious feelings. The Uttar Pradesh Police had registered a case against Zubair on the basis of a complaint that he had tweeted “offensive words towards mahants of religious places symbolising our faith and thereby hurting our religious sentiments”. Zubair had appealed to stay the investigation into the “absurd” charges and subsequently quash the FIR registered at Sitapur. Zubair will however remain in judicial custody in a separate FIR registered by the Delhi Police. This case had not come up before the Supreme Court. The court was only concerned with the U.P. case. The Bench also made it clear that Zubair will not put up any tweets or tamper with evidence, electronic or otherwise. The order will also not impede the investigation, seizure of evidence in the Sitapur case. The Vacation Bench said the case will now come up before a Regular Bench when the court reopens. ED slaps penalities on Amnesty India International, Aakar Patel The Adjudicating Authority of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has [imposed a penalty of ₹51.72 crore on Amnesty India International Private Limited (AIIPL) and ₹10 crore on its former Chief Executive Officer Aakar Patel]( in connection with alleged violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in 2019. The ED’s inquiry was initiated on the basis of information that Amnesty International, United Kingdom, had been remitting “huge amounts of foreign contribution” through its Indian entities, not registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), through the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) route. [Aakar Patel. File] It was allegedly done to expand its non government organisation (NGO) activities in India despite the denial of prior registration or permissions to the Amnesty International India Foundation Trust (AIIFT) and other trusts under the FCRA by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The showcause notice issued by the ED had said that between November 2013 and June 2018, the remittance which was received by the AIIPL – and claimed as receipt for business/management consultancy and public relation services for export of services to foreign beneficiary – was nothing but the amount borrowed from the overseas sender, thereby violating the FEMA provisions. “After getting a detailed reply from the AIIPL and following the principal of natural justice, the Adjudicating Authority of ED has held that the AIIPL is an umbrella entity under Amnesty International Limited, UK, which was declared to be set up for the cause of social activities in India,” said the agency. However, the agency alleged, the AIIPL was involved in many activities that were not relevant to its declared commercial business, and a circumventing model had been used to route the foreign funds under the guise of business activities to escape the FCRA scrutiny. “All contentions and submission from the AIIPL regarding the claim of the remittance towards the export of services to Amnesty International have been dismissed, in the absence of concrete evidence,” it said. As a result, more than ₹51.72 crore received by the AIIPL through inward remittances was “nothing but the fund lent by the Amnesty International to the AIIPL to ensure its objectives in the territorial jurisdiction of India, which is not accordance with the provisions of Regulation 3 of the Foreign Exchange Management (borrowing and lending in Foreign Exchange) Regulations, 2000”. The ED had earlier attached assets worth ₹19.54 crore in connection with a money laundering case involving the AIIPL, Indians for Amnesty International Trust (IAIT), AIIFT and the Amnesty International South Asia Foundation. The case is based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) alleging FCRA violation. As alleged, the AIIFT was granted permission under the FCRA during 2011-12 for receiving foreign contributions from the Amnesty International, U.K. However, based on adverse inputs from security agencies, it was cancelled. Then, the IAIT and the AIIPL were formed in 2012-13 and 2013-14 to “escape the FCRA route and carried out NGO activities in the guise of service export and FDI”. Doctored Rahul Gandhi video | Congress MPs ask Speaker for action against three BJP lawmakers As many as [11 Lok Sabha MPs of the Congress have written to Speaker Om Birla]( against the “unthical conduct” of BJP parliamentarians Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Subrat Pathak and Bhola Singh of sharing a distorted and fake video of Rahul Gandhi that they said could pose a threat to the country’s social fabric and demanded his swift intervention. The Congress MPs, including leader of the party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, have urged him to refer their complaint to the Ethics Committee of Parliament for examination and necessary action. They alleged that Rathore, Pathak and Singh had shared a distorted video of Rahul Gandhi, falsely linking his statement on Kerala SFI activists for vandalising his Wayanad office to suggest that he had demonstrated sympathy for the killers of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur. The video was run by a TV channel which later withdrew it and tendered apology. The Congress MPs alleged that the video was distorted in order to “mislead, incite and provoke” the public. It was clear that the doctored clip was designed to create a dangerously false impression in the minds of the viewers regarding his position on the heinous killing in Udaipur, defame him, and incite anger towards him by creating the impression that he was condoning a violent and horrific crime and foment social tensions in an already sensitive and polarised environment, the Congress MPs said. They alleged that the BJP lawmakers shared the fake and distorted news on their social media accounts for the sole purpose of spreading disinformation. The doctored clip was widely amplified on social media with a malicious intent to incite physical harm against him, and further vitiate the environment of hatred, the Congress MPs said. “This highly irresponsible conduct deserves to be condemned unequivocally,” the letter said. “We, as MPs and members of Indian National Congress, turn to your good office and the Parliamentary Committee set up expressly to examine any complaint against the unethical conduct of members of the Lok Sabha. In order to deter such egregious conduct in the future, a swift, categorical and effective intervention should be made,” the Congres MPs told the Speaker. They also said parliamentarians are elected to their office with an explicit mandate to uphold the Constitution and to act in the service of the public. Members are expected to maintain high standards of morality, dignity, decency, and values in public life. “We, thus have a greater duty towards our fellow citizens. For parliamentarians to act in an irresponsible manner, or a manner that threatens our social fabric, amounts to grossly unethical conduct. In view of the above-mentioned unethical conduct of the parliamentarians, we request you to exercise your power under the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha and refer the matter to the Committee on Ethics for urgent examination and action,” they noted. The Congress lawmakers have contended the offence is all the more egregious since the BJP MPs were aware that the video was distorted and presented in an “entirely baseless and false” context. The signatories to the letter include Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, K. Suresh, Manickam Tagore, Ravneet Singh, M.K. Raghavan, D.K. Suresh, Santokh Singh Chaudhary, K. Jeyakumar, Anto Antony, and S. Jothi Mani. In Brief U.S. President [Joe Biden will take executive action Friday to protect access to abortion]( the White House said, as he faces mounting pressure from fellow Democrats to be more forceful on the subject after the Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to the procedure two weeks ago. The White House said Biden will speak Friday morning “on protecting access to reproductive health care services”. The actions he was expected to outline are intended to try to mitigate some potential penalties women seeking abortion may face after the ruling but are limited in their ability to safeguard access to abortion nationwide. 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