U.S. Envoy Announces Handover of Alleged Rapist to JapanU.S. Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker announced Friday the United States will hand over to Japan a U.S. serviceman suspected of raping a local woman in Okinawa Prefecture a week ago.Baker made the announcement in a statement after visiting the Foreign Ministry to discuss the matter with Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka. The handover of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy Woodland, 24, will mark the first time in Okinawa for a crime suspect belonging to U.S. forces to be detained by Japanese authorities before indictment. Woodland, stationed at the U.S. Kadena Air Base, is suspected of raping a woman in her 20s in the early hours of June 29 in a parking lot at the American Village entertainment district in Chatan, central Okinawa island. |
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