DATE=03/28/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-288079

TITLE=JAPAN/WOODLAND VERDICT (S)

BYLINE=AMY BICKERS

DATELINE=TOKYO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT

INTRO: A Japanese court handed a U-S airman a 32-month jail term for raping a local woman last June on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. As V-O-A's Amy Bickers reports from Tokyo, the case angered many in Okinawa and increased resentment against U-S troops stationed there.

TEXT: A Japanese district court judge in the capital of Okinawa ruled Thursday that 25 year-old Staff Sergeant Timothy Woodland is guilty of rape.

Woodland went on trial after being charged with sexually assaulting the 24 year-old unnamed woman in the parking lot of a local shopping center last June 29th. He has been sentenced to 32 months in a Japanese prison.

During the trial, Woodland claimed he had consensual sex with the woman, but she testified that she repeatedly resisted his advances.

Masao Doi is the chief of media relations for the 18th Wing Kadena aqir base. He says the U-S military accepts the verdict and the sentence.

/// DOI ACT ///

Kadena air base officials have fully cooperated with local Okinawa government agencies and the government of Japan.

/// END ACT ///

The trial attracted intense media coverage and intensified local resentment of the 26-thousand U-S troops based in Okinawa. (SIGNED)

NEB/AB/MAR