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PHILIPPINES: 21-YEAR-OLD MARINE CONVICTED OF RAPE December 5, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) A U.S. Marine was convicted Monday of raping a Filipino woman and sentenced to 40 years in prison, ending an emotional trial that has strained U.S.-Philippine ties and tested a joint military pact. Three other Marines and their Filipino driver were acquitted of complicity.
Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, 21, from St. Louis, was the first American soldier convicted of wrongdoing in the Philippines since the country shut down U.S. bases here the early 1990s. His lawyer, Ricardo Diaz, said he would appeal.
Smith, who was in the country for joint training, did not deny having sex with the 23-year-old woman but testified that it was consensual. The court, however, said the woman was so intoxicated that she could not have consented to sex, pointing to testimony that Smith carried her to a van where the incident occurred on Nov. 1, 2005.
Pozon said in English that the severe penalty was aimed "to protect women against the unbridled bestiality of persons who cannot control their libidinous proclivity." "We're very happy, we laud Judge Pozon for showing courage and judicial independence," the woman's lawyer, Evalyn Ursua, said.
About 100 protesters had gathered outside the courthouse, demanding the government scrap the 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement that allows U.S. troops to train with Philippine troops after the Philippine Senate ordered U.S. bases shut down in the early 1990s.