US Airman Arrested Over Rape in Okinawa

Okinawa prefectural police on Friday arrested a US airman suspected of raping a Japanese woman in Japan's southernmost prefecture a week ago, Kyodo News reported.

The arrest of Timothy Woodland, a 24-year-old sergeant of US Air Force Senior Staff, came after US Ambassador to Japan Howard Baker notified Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka in Tokyo of Washington's decision to hand him over prior to indictment.

The US decision to hand Woodland over was announced four days after the Japanese police obtained an arrest warrant for the suspect.

Woodland, who is stationed at the US Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, is suspected of raping a woman in her 20s during the early hours of last Friday in a parking lot of the American Village entertainment district in Chatan, central Okinawa.

In Naha, Okinawa Governor Keiichi Inamine complained about the prolonged procedure in transferring the suspect.

"It is extremely regrettable considering the feelings of the people of Okinawa Prefecture who have been strongly calling for a prompt transfer of custody," Inamine said.

The handover of Woodland marks the first time for a crime suspect who is a member of the US military in Okinawa Prefecture to be detained by Japanese authorities before indictment.

Under the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), the US military is not required to hand over to Japanese police suspects in criminal cases before they are indicted.

But following the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawa girl by three US servicemen in 1995, Washington agreed to give "sympathetic consideration" to the handover of suspects in serious crimes, such as murder and rape, and in other specific cases.

The latest rape case has triggered both widespread anger in Okinawa, home of the bulk of US military facilities in Japan, and renewed political debate in Tokyo over the SOFA's constraints on Japanese police investigations of crimes in which US military personnel are suspects.

Inamine and other Okinawa officials are demanding that drastic changes be made to the bilateral agreements between Tokyo and Washington to facilitate the transfer of custody of criminals suspects who are members of the US military.






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