Former U.S. Marine Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, 33, was sentenced to life in prison Friday by a Japanese court for raping and murdering a 20-year-old woman in April 2016, The New York Times reported.
Friday’s sentence capped the end of a public trial that enraged many on the island of Okinawa, where some 47,000 U.S. troops are stationed. Shinzato, a Marine from 2007 to 2014, was on the base working as a civilian contractor when he is accused of raping and murdering Rina Shimabukuro and abandoning her body in a village.
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The 2016 attack was brought up by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during former President Obama’s trip to the nation last May. Abe demanded that the U.S. prevent similar crimes in a fiery statement to reporters that many saw as uncharacteristic for the well-mannered Japanese leader.
“I am extremely upset. I have no words,” Abe told reporters last May. “I demand that the United States take strict measures to prevent something like this from happening again.”
Crimes committed by American service members around the base at Okinawa have long been a source of tension between the two nations. In 1995, mass anti-U.S. protests erupted on the island after a 12-year-old schoolgirl was raped by three U.S. service members.
Okinawa is home to the largest Marine base outside the U.S. Shinzato worked at Kadena Base, where more than 20,000 U.S. service members and their families, as well as Japanese civilians live and work.