US soldier convicted of rape in Korea

According to the BBC, a US service member based in South Korea has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping a local woman near his unit, reports say.

 

The report describes that a the 21-year-old was convicted by a South Korean court for the crime, carried out in September.

 

Reporters were told that he had broken into the flat of an 18-year-old Korean woman, and carried out a sustained sexual attack lasting several hours.

 

The sentence was one of the longest given to a US solder in South Korea. The judge described it as a "violent and abnormal assault", according to the Yonhap news agency. The attack took place in the early hours of the morning, near the man's unit north of Seoul.

 

America has more than 28,000 troops stationed in South Korea - a legacy from the Korean War 60 years ago.

 

Serious crimes by American troops have sparked large protests in the past - over the question of who has jurisdiction to try them in criminal cases. However, according to a past agreement America has jurisdiction over its Korea-based soldiers.

 

Nevertheless, military officials say that, in recent years, they have honored every request from the South Korean authorities to try American personnel accused of serious crimes.