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US Marines in jail for beating taxi driver in Okinawa
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-06-06 10:31

TOKYO -- Two US Marines were each sentenced to several years in prison Thursday for beating up a taxi driver and fleeing without paying him the fare on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.

The incident was one of a series of crimes committed by US troops in Japan that has led to public outrage in the nation closely allied with Washington.

Joseph Riddle, a 20-year-old corporal, was sentenced to four and a half years' imprisonment by the district court in the main Okinawan city of Naha, court officials said.

Thousands of Okinawans rally in Chatan town to protest against crimes committed by U.S. troops and to demand a smaller U.S. military presence on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa March 23, 2008, after the arrest of a Marine on suspicion of raping a schoolgirl. [Agencies]

A 19-year-old private first class, whose name was withheld because he is a minor under Japanese law, was given an indeterminate sentence of between three and four years in prison. The length of the term will depend on his behaviour.

Both were convicted of robbery resulting in injury.

According to the ruling, the two soldiers punched the driver and smashed a liquor bottle over his head after taking his taxi on January 7 near their base, the Futenma Marine Corps station.

They fled without paying a fare of 2,780 yen (26 dollars). The driver required one month of treatment for his injury.

"The crime was dangerous and malicious. They were so obstinate as to chase the victim after he escaped the car and continue attacking him," presiding judge Hiroyuki Yoshii said.

"They were selfish as they wanted to save money for personal entertainment," the judge said.

Okinawa is home to half of the more than 40,000 US troops in Japan and has often seen tensions between the soldiers and the local community.

A US military court last month sentenced a US Marine in Okinawa to four years in prison for groping a 14-year-old schoolgirl. The crime caused street protests and led the military to temporarily slap a sweeping curfew on troops and their families.

A Nigerian man who deserted the US Navy is also facing charges that he stabbed to death a taxi driver in Yokosuka, a major naval base near Tokyo.