The US marine is alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman in a room in Okinawa on June 21. - PHOTO: ST FILE
NAHA, Japan: Prosecutors in Okinawa prefecture on Sept 20 indicted a US Marine over alleged nonconsensual sexual intercourse resulting in injury.
On Sept 5, the Okinawa prefectural police sent papers on Michael Hofmaster, a 20-year-old lance corporal in the Marines, to the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office.
Hofmaster has denied part of the charges, claiming that he had consent, investigative sources said.
He is currently being detained at a Japanese facility.
According to the indictment and other sources, the lance corporal is alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman in a room in the northern part of the main island of Okinawa on June 21, including pushing her down onto a bed and injuring her lower body.
The two knew each other through social media and met several times. After the incident, the woman visited a hospital and an official there reported the case to the prefectural police.
In July, the Japanese government launched steps to swiftly share information on US military-related incidents with local governments, after criticism mounted that information had not been relayed to the Okinawa prefectural government over sexual assault cases involving US military personnel.
In the latest case, the prefectural police notified the prefectural government on the day the papers were sent to the prosecutors.
In June, a Japanese government spokesman told reporters that a 25-year-old American soldier had been charged in March over the alleged sexual assault of a minor, adding that he had known the girl was under 16, the age of consent in Japan.
A month after the news, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Lieutenant-General Roger Turner, the Okinawa area coordinator and head of US forces in the prefecture, announced the reinforcing of relevant measures to prevent a recurrence of sexual assault incidents.
Okinawa accounts for just 0.6 per cent of Japan’s land mass but hosts about 70 per cent of all US military bases and facilities in the country.
A litany of base-related woes has long grieved Okinawans, from pollution to noise and helicopter crashes, leading to complaints that they bear the brunt of hosting troops.
The 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US soldiers in Okinawa prompted widespread calls for a rethinking of a 1960 pact that outlined the legal status of Japan-based US military personnel. - THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
