Four Yokota AB Teenagers Arrested for Attempted Murder

As a follow-up to a previous post on the four American teenagers accused of stretching a rope across a rode which caused serious injury to a Japanese national, Hiroko Tabuchi reports the following:

Four teenagers from an American military base in Japanwere arrested on charges of attempted murder on Saturday for allegedly toppling a woman riding her motorbike, causing her to suffer a serious head injury.In the August episode, which has received national coverage in Japan, a 23-year-old motorbike rider suffered a fractured skull when she hit rope that the authorities say had been strung across a road by the four teenagers near the Yokota Air Base in Tokyo.The suspects are three boys and a girl, ages 15 to 18, who all are children of United States military personnel. Local police officers arrested them after surveillance videotapes showed them near the site of the crash. Click here for the rest of the story.[ad#468x60-ad]

Note: "The teens, whose parents are servicemembers stationed at Yokota, were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder but have not been charged, authorities said.

Japanese police can question adult suspects for 48 hours and hold them an additional 21 days while prosecutors determine whether to file charges. Though the young Americans are considered juveniles under Japanese law, they could be charged as adults. It was unclear Saturday how long they could be held in custody.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police executed the arrest warrant after more than a week of discussions between U.S. and Japanese officials over whether the teens should be exempt from arrest until formally charged — as is the case with U.S. troops and most civilian employees under the status of forces agreement.

Before Saturday, the U.S. had maintained that dependent family members qualify for the same protections as military personnel and that the teens — who surrendered their passports to base officials late last month — should not be taken into custody.

It was unclear Saturday whether the reversal of that position would set a precedent for dependents caught up in the Japanese legal system." via the Stars and Stripes

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