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Tokyo – A Japanese court said on Wednesday that he recognized an American navy guilty of having sexually assaulted a woman in Okinawa in a case that started Concerns of anger and security On the southern island of Japan, which has a strong presence of American troops.
The Naha district court said that Lance CPL. Jamel Clayton, 22, of Ohio, was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison in the case.
Clayton was found guilty of having attacked the woman in her twenties in the village of Yomitan on the main island of Okinawa in May 2024, stifling, sexually and injuring.
Obata said that the testimony of the victim, planned at a distance and anonymously, was very credible even if the defendant denied the accusations carried by the prosecutors, who demanded 10 years in prison, according to Kyodo News.
Japan Pool / Kyodo News via AP 
Obata described Clayton’s behavior as “so dangerous that he could have threatened his life, and very malicious,” said Jiji Press, said French news agency AFP.
Clayton lawyers plan to call the decision, AFP said the local media.
It was one of a Sexual assault chain last year In which the arrests of the suspects were initially retained by the local authorities to protect the privacy of the victims, to trigger anger and criticism of the concealations.
Okinawa, where one of the fiercest battles of the Second World War was waged 80 years ago and under the occupation of the United States until 1972, remains by around 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan under a bilateral security pact. The island, which represents only 0.6% of Japanese land, welcomes 70% of US military facilities.
Frustration is raised on Okinawa because of its continuous load with the strong American presence which includes noise, pollution, plane accidents and crime linked to American troops.
The Minister of Defense, the Gen Nakatani, who attended the 80th anniversary on Monday at the end of the Battle of Okinawa, expressed his concerns concerning the recent cases of sexual assault involving American soldiers when he met the lieutenant-general Roger Turner, commander of the Marine III expeditionary force, requesting discipline and preventive measures.
There have been growing calls to a revision of the Agreement on the States of Forces which gives the United States the right to study most accidents and crimes that occur on Japanese soil.
The cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba adopted a statement on Tuesday showing that Japanese prosecutors had abandoned criminal cases against more than 300 American soldiers in the last decade between 2014 and 2024, including a sexual assault case in Okinawa in 2020.
