US Marine indicted over robbery and murder of woman in Okinawa
Prosecutors allege a 20-year-old Marine strangled a woman with a phone cord in a Naha hotel and took her backpack.
A 20-year-old US Marine has been indicted in Japan over the alleged robbery and murder of a woman at a hotel in Naha, the capital of Okinawa, The Straits Times, the South China Morning Post and The Japan Times reported. Prosecutors filed the indictment on Sunday.
Devin Ballard, who is based at Futenma Air Base, is accused of looping a phone cord around the woman's neck on October 3 and making off with her backpack, which had a wallet inside. The indictment says she died of suffocation. Citing the indictment among other sources, The Japan Times reported that the alleged strangling happened in a hotel room. None of the outlets identified the woman.
Police in Okinawa said officers came across Ballard on his own in the city of Okinawa late that night. He was detained the next day, with police suspecting him of robbery and murder.
In a statement, Hiroya Ishii, deputy chief of the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office, said his office would aim to argue accurately at trial and "prove the case based on the law and evidence".
The South China Morning Post and The Straits Times, the latter running a Kyodo News report, said the killing had revived opposition to the American presence in Okinawa, which is home to most US military facilities in Japan. Residents there were already angry over earlier offences by American personnel, among them crimes targeting women and girls, and over noise and pollution. Kyodo reported that Governor Genta Koja has since pressed Tokyo harder to adopt measures to prevent further incidents.
Japan's government has formally and strongly protested to Washington. It has asked the US to give investigators its full cooperation and to keep tight discipline over its service members. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi described the case as a "heinous crime".
On October 9, after Ballard was taken into custody, US forces in Okinawa ordered personnel in the prefecture to observe a curfew between midnight and 5am. The order lasts 30 days.
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the two governments had opened discussions on prevention. Those talks will assess whether the US military's "liberty policy", the rules covering troops' behaviour off base in Japan, is effective. They will also look at patrols that American forces and Japanese police carry out together.
Sources: The Japan Times, U.S. Marine indicted in Okinawa robbery-murder case; South China Morning Post, US Marine indictment in Okinawa murder trial renews anti-base movement; The Straits Times, US Marine indicted over robbery, murder of woman in Okinawa.
