US Navy to hand murder suspect to Japan police

TOKYO (Reuters) – The U.S. Navy agreed on Saturday to hand
over a U.S. sailor suspected of killing and robbing a
56-year-old Japanese woman to Japanese police, a spokesman
said.

The U.S. Navy has been keeping the serviceman in custody
since the January 3 killing of Yoshie Sato in Yokosuka City,
where the man is based aboard the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft
carrier.

Japanese media said he had confessed to the killing but a
spokesman for the local Japanese police said he could not
confirm the reports.

Sato was found bleeding and unconscious near a building in
Yokosuka and died from internal injuries, police have said.
Domestic media reports said the sailor had returned to base in
blood-stained clothes, but had been vague as to his motives for
the attack.

The incident comes at an awkward time, as Tokyo and
Washington attempt to hammer out a deal with Japanese local
communities to allow the reorganization of U.S. bases in Japan
in an attempt to make the U.S. military more flexible.

A U.S.-Japan pact governing the conduct of U.S. military
personnel in Japan does not require the transfer of military
suspects until they are charged.

But after the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old Japanese girl by
three U.S. servicemen on the southern island of Okinawa, which
triggered huge protests there, Washington agreed to give
favorable consideration to pre-indictment transfers in the case
of suspected rape, murder and other “heinous” crimes.

Japan’s foreign ministry expressed satisfaction with the
U.S. handling of the incident.

“The suspect was quickly identified thanks to thorough
cooperation between the U.S. and Japanese investigative
authorities,” it said in a statement. “The two governments will
continue to cooperate closely on the case.”

Nearly 50,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in
Japan under the allies’ bilateral security treaty.

Many in the Yokosuka area also opposed to U.S. Navy plans
to replace the aging conventionally powered Kitty Hawk with
what would be the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be
based in Japan, the only country ever hit by atomic bombs.