People leave flowers and pay their respects to former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe outside the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Sept 27, 2022. (PHOTO / POOL / AP)

TOKYO - Japanese police on Monday referred Tetsuya Yamagami, who has been indicted for the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to prosecutors for allegedly making a gun and damaging a building by test-firing it.

Yamagami, 42, is believed to have test-fired a weapon at a facility linked to the religious group Unification Church in the western city of Nara on July 7 last year, a day before the fatal shooting, in addition to making handguns and gunpowder without authorization, according to the Nara prefectural police.

The latest charges against the 42-year-old are expected to mark an end to police investigations into the deadly shooting of Abe.

Yamagami, an ex-Maritime Self-Defense Force worker, was arrested on the spot on July 8 last year after allegedly shooting Abe twice at close range with a handmade gun while Abe, 67, was delivering a stump speech in the western city of Nara ahead of an upper house election.

ALSO READ: Report: Japan indicts Yamagami for murder of ex-PM Abe

In January, after months of psychiatric evaluations by prosecutors, Yamagami was indicted for murder and violating the firearms control law.