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US marine jailed for rape
12/09/2003 09:29 - (SA)
Tokyo - A Japanese court on Friday convicted a U.S. Marine of raping a Japanese woman on the southern island of Okinawa and sentenced him to three years and six months in prison, a court official said.
In its ruling, the Okinawa District Court found Marine Lance Corporal Jose W Torres guilty of beating and raping the woman, court official Nobuyuki Yokota said.
It wasn't immediately clear if Torres would contest the sentence with an appeal to a higher court.
Torres pleaded guilty to the charge at the outset of his trial in July. Prosecutors had sought a five-year prison sentence for him.
Torres, 21, was stationed at Camp Hansen in the town of Kin on Okinawa. He was accused of raping a 19-year-old Japanese woman on May 25 after punching her and breaking her nose.
Crimes involving American troops are a sensitive issue on Okinawa, where a heavy US military presence has long caused friction with residents. At Tokyo's request, US military authorities handed over custody of Torres to local police before he was formally charged - only the second time US officials have agreed to do so - in an apparent move to head off anger over the incident.
Okinawa is about 1 600km southwest of Tokyo.
- AP
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