No Appeal In Okinawa Rape

A U.S. airman convicted last month of raping a Japanese woman on the southern island of Okinawa has decided not to appeal his case, thereby finalizing a sentence of nearly three years in prison, a court official said Friday.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy Woodland and prosecutors had until Thursday to appeal the sentence of two years and eight months in a prison outside Tokyo. The term was slightly shorter than the three years demanded by prosecutors.

Neither side appealed, said Masayuki Ito, a spokesman for the District Court in Naha, the capital of Okinawa.

The June 29 rape of a 20-year old Japanese woman in a parking lot outside a popular nightclub stoked resentment against U.S. troops in Okinawa, which still has painful memories of the 1995 rape of a local schoolgirl by three American servicemen.

The woman, whose identity was protected throughout the trial, issued a public statement Friday.

"I had a hard time mentally, but I feel it was good that by not dropping the case and courageously bringing the charge I was able to make a small contribution toward not giving in," she said, retaining her anonymity.

She issued the remarks through Kenichi Asano, a professor at Doshisha University.

Woodland, whose hometown has not been released, went on trial last September after being charged with the rape.

Okinawa, about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, is home to almost half of the approximately 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan.

The rape raised pressure on the Japanese government to revise an agreement with Washington that lets U.S. authorities hold military personnel suspected of crimes until formally charged by prosecutors.

U.S. officials had refused to hand Woodland over to police for four days after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The U.S. military had no comment on Woodland's decision not to appeal, said Masao Doi, an Air Force spokesman on Okinawa.

Separately Friday, Japan's Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by a group of residents demanding that the U.S. Air Force reduce flights from its Yokota Air Base in Tokyo's western suburbs and compensate them for the drone of aircraft noise. The court said it lacked jurisdiction over the U.S. base.