TOKYO — A U.S. Air Force sergeant was indicted Thursday in the alleged rape of a woman on Okinawa — an incident that prompted a standoff between Tokyo and Washington over treatment of criminal suspects in Japan.
Staff Sgt. Timothy Woodland, 24, faces a minimum of two years in prison if convicted in what prosecutors say was an assault on a 20-year-old Japanese woman in a bar parking lot on June 29.
Woodland has denied raping the woman, and Japan's Kyodo News agency quoted prosecutor Junichi Okumura as saying the sergeant insists the two had consensual sex.
The case and the U.S. delay in handing the suspect over to Japanese authorities inflamed tensions between Okinawa and the U.S. military, which stations about 26,000 service people on the southern island.
Opponents of the American presence on Okinawa cheered the indictment and repeated calls to change a U.S.-Japan pact to force the U.S. military to surrender criminal suspects more quickly.
"He should be indicted," said Takashi Kishimoto, assistant director-general of the Okinawa Peace Action Center. "The most important thing is to amend the Status of Forces Agreement."
Residents of Okinawa, about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, have been outraged by repeated crimes involving U.S. soldiers despite promises from Washington to ratchet up discipline. Three U.S. servicemen raped a 12-year-old girl on the island in 1995.
No date had been set for Woodland's trial.
Defense lawyer Tsuyoshi Arakaki was preparing an attempt to get Woodland released on bail. Kyoko Toguchi, an official in Arakaki's legal office, said Woodland was determined to stick to his claims of innocence. Bail is unusual in the Japanese criminal justice system.
Prosecutors moved relatively swiftly to charge Woodland after a judge on Wednesday moved up the indictment deadline from next Monday to Thursday.
The indictment comes two weeks after a high-profile impasse between the United States and Japan over custody of Woodland.
U.S. officials had refused to hand him over to local police despite the issuance of an arrest warrant July 2, saying they wanted guarantees that his rights would be protected. Many Japanese took the delay as an insult to the nation's legal system.
Woodland was eventually arrested on July 6 after negotiators worked out a handover agreement. The Americans have not released details, but Japanese news reports said prosecutors agreed to limit questioning of Woodland to 10 hours a day and to move quickly on the case.
Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of U.S. Pacific Command, told reporters in Tokyo shortly before the indictment Thursday that the agreement reached on Woodland's handover was "satisfactory."
"We are not shielding American servicemen from Japanese law," Blair said. "I'm satisfied that the incident is being handled correctly and I think we can handle these incidents in the future."
The case has prompted calls in Japan to revise the agreement that governs the nearly 50,000 American military personnel in Japan. Under that agreement, the United States is not required to hand over criminal suspects until they are formally charged, although it is supposed to "consider" requests for custody before indictment.
Some Japanese say it should be changed to provide a quicker handover of American military suspects to Japanese authorities and to speed investigations.
Last week, the foreign affairs committee of Japan's lower house of Parliament adopted a resolution demanding a review of the bilateral agreement and criticizing the U.S. military for failing to prevent crimes by troops stationed in Japan.
In the Woodland case, the U.S. side had reportedly been concerned about the translator assigned to assist him, and had wanted a defense lawyer to be present during questioning. The case, however, has mostly followed Japanese procedures, under which the prosecution assigns the translator and no lawyer is present during questioning.
Woodland is stationed at the Kadena Air Base on Okinawa. U.S. military officials say Air Force regulations prohibit release of his hometown.