Court issues warrant for Marine accused of rape

A JAPANESE court issued an arrest warrant yesterday for a Marine accused of beating and raping a 19-year-old woman on the southern island of Okinawa, officials said.

The alleged attack has led the prime minister to call for stricter discipline among US military personnel in Japan.

A district court in Okinawa granted police permission yesterday to arrest the Marine, 21-year-old Lance Corporal Jose Torres, police spokesman Shinpachi Higashizato said. He declined to say when the arrest would be made.

Torres is stationed at Camp Hansen in Okinawa, home to more than half the 47,000 US troops based in Japan, and is in US military custody. Okinawa police have been questioning him, Mr Higashizato said.

At a meeting of Japanese and US officials in Tokyo yesterday, Japan formally asked that the US agree to transfer custody of the Marine to Japanese police before an indictment, the two sides said.

Under a 1995 bilateral agreement, the US military is not required to surrender personnel suspected of crimes until they are indicted by Japanese prosecutors, although it can agree to do so on a case-by-case basis. US officials promised to consider the request for a pre-indictment hand-over, both sides said.

The alleged attack took place around 3.30am on May 25 in the Okinawan town of Kin, according to a statement released by the Marines.

The woman suffered a broken nose and was sexually assaulted, Mr Higashizato said.

Police say the suspect admitted punching the woman in an alley but denied raping her, saying the sex was consensual, Kyodo News service reported.