An Air Force sergeant suspected of rape was taken to a police station on Okinawa Island on Friday morning amid reports in Washington and Tokyo that he would be handed over to Japanese jurisdiction.
U.S. Ambassador Howard Baker said officials were working on the final details of an agreement to hand over Sgt. Timothy Woodland, 24.
Though he has denied the allegations, Japanese police want to charge Woodland in the assault of a 20-year-old woman last week in a parking lot near the Kadena Air Base, where he is stationed.
The case has become a crucial litmus test in diplomatic relations between the two nations. Okinawa residents have demanded a reduction or a withdrawal of U.S. bases that occupy 20 percent of their island while the United States is anxious to maintain its strategically important presence on Okinawa and the goodwill of the islanders.
Many Okinawans have long complained that they unfairly carry the burden of the U.S. military presence in Japan. About 26,000 of the 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan are stationed on Okinawa.
Japan’s prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, addressed the matter for the first time, saying, “I hope [the U.S.] will present an appropriate and proper decision shortly.”
The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly on Thursday condemned what it called the failure of the U.S. military to promptly allow Woodland to be placed in Japanese custody.
An assembly resolution called for an immediate revision of the Status of Forces Agreement, which prevents U.S. military personnel from being handed over before they are indicted.
U.S. officials had delayed Woodland’s hand-over for several days as they sought assurances from Japan that he would have a lawyer and an interpreter while in custody. It remains unclear, though, whether Washington got all the assurances it wanted.
Unlike U.S. law, Japanese statutes do not permit a suspect to be accompanied by a lawyer during interrogation.
For decades the U.S. military had rejected demands that its personnel who commit crimes in Japan be handed over to local police. After the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl, U.S. officials agreed to consider such requests to turn over suspects before indictments in cases involving serious crimes. But the decision rests solely with U.S. authorities.
The only previous time the United States has done so was in 1996, when a serviceman was charged with the attempted murder of a Japanese woman. He was later convicted.
However, the United States refused to hand over suspects in two other cases, a 1998 hit-and-run of a high school girl and a series of arson incidents last January.
