US Navy hands murder suspect to Japan police

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

Seaman William Reese, 21, was arrested after being escorted
to the local police station in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, where
he is suspected of killing Yoshie Sato on January 3.

Japanese media said Reese, who is based aboard the USS
Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, had confessed to the killing, but
neither local police nor the Navy could 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.

Reese had been based on the Kitty Hawk at Yokosuka, south
of Tokyo, since May 2004 in his first navy assignment since
completing his training, Commander John Wallach, director of
public affairs for the U.S. Naval Forces Japan said.

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.