US sergeant feels no remorse for rape

PRAVDA.Ru correspondent Andrei Krushinsky reports:

Sergeant Timothy Woodland charged by the Japanese court for raping a Japanese woman on Okinawa on June 29, 2001, has not pleaded guilty and even demonstrates no repentance. He thinks, why an American sergeant is to say pardons for such insignificant accident at the time when the USA had not apologized for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

As it is known, US Air Force pilots are not conscience-stricken when they doom to death patients of destroyed hospitals and refugee columns; the crimes they commit on Okinawa do not make them blush as well.

When a Japanese Judge passed a sentence for an imprisonment for 2 years and 8 months yesterday, sensitive Timothy asked for a permission to sit down. The 100 days of pre-trial imprisonment will be also included in the term. Within the whole period the sergeant has been carefully looked after by US law enforcement organizations, commanders would not deliver him up to the Japanese authorities until mass demonstrations ended on Okinawa.

According to the Japanese Criminal Code, raping entails a 2-3 year imprisonment. It means, Timothy has got almost the maximum term. US-based Associated Presse agency informs, the sergeant is going to appeal against the court decision.

The Japan Times has published today condemnations of Japanese of different age, all of them think the punishment is too light. At the same time the people are satisfied with the fact that this time a rape case has been successfully brought to court.

Andrei Krushinsky PRAVDA.Ru Beijing

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/03/29/39030.html