Judicial members including Judge Kazuhiko Obata, center back, for a sexual assault case of a U.S. Marine sit at the Naha District Court in Okinawa prefecture's Naha, southern Japan, on June 24, 2025. Japan Pool / Kyodo News via AP

A Japanese court said Wednesday it has found a U.S. Marine guilty of sexually assaulting a woman on Okinawa in a case that has triggered anger and safety concerns on Japan's southern island, which has a heavy American troop presence.

The Naha District Court said Lance Cpl. Jamel Clayton, 22, of Ohio, was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison in the case.

Clayton was found guilty of attacking the woman in her 20s in the Yomitan village on the main Okinawa island in May, 2024, choking, sexually assaulting and injuring her.

Obata said the victim's testimony, provided remotely and anonymously, was highly credible even though the defendant denied the charges brought by the prosecutors, who demanded 10 years in prison, according to Kyodo News.

Obata described Clayton's behavior as "so dangerous that it could have threatened her life, and highly malicious," Jiji Press reported, French news agency AFP said.

Clayton's lawyers are considering appealing the ruling, AFP cited local media as saying.

It was one of a string of sexual assault cases last year in which the arrests of the suspects were initially withheld by local authorities on grounds of protecting the victims' privacy, triggering anger and criticisms of coverups.

Okinawa, where one of the fiercest battles of World War II was fought 80 years ago and under U.S. occupation until 1972, remains home to the majority of about 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan under a bilateral security pact. The island, which accounts for only 0.6% of Japanese land, hosts 70% of U.S. military facilities.

Frustration runs high on Okinawa because of its continued burden with the heavy U.S. presence that includes noise, pollution, aircraft accidents and crime related to American troops.

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, who attended Monday's 80th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa, raised concerns about recent sexual assault cases involving U.S. service members when he met with Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, the commander of III Marine Expeditionary Force, requesting discipline and preventive measures.

There have been growing calls for a revision to the Status of Forces Agreement that gives the United States the right to investigate most accidents and crimes that occur on Japanese soil.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Cabinet on Tuesday adopted a statement showing that Japanese prosecutors dropped criminal cases against more than 300 U.S. service members in the last decade between 2014 and 2024, including a sexual assault case in Okinawa in 2020.

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