Asia-Pacific

US marine gets 40 years for Philippines rape

(AFP)
Updated: 2006-12-04 15:41

But it said it was "morally convinced" that Smith had committed "bestial acts" and "chilling, naked sadism." The marine was remanded to a Manila city jail, and his lawyer said he would appeal.

Uniformed Filipino police swiftly escorted Smith out through a side door after the guilty verdict was read out, while the three acquitted Americans walked free through the front, escorted by US embassy personnel.

Members of leftist and women's groups that had provided moral support to Nicolas yelled in jubilation after the verdict was read, drowning out the shouts of Carpentier, who yelled back at the courtroom crowd.

Not since the 1960s has a criminal case involving US servicemen created so much bitterness and anti-American feeling than what became referred to as the Subic Bay rape case.

For many it has revived memories of the days of the "Ugly American," when US servicemen stationed in the Philippines were frequently accused of bad behaviour and, it is claimed, sometimes literally got away with murder.

There were some 20,000 US servicemen at Subic Bay and the Clark Air Base before they and a handful of smaller facilities were handed over to the Philippines in 1992.

Smith's lawyer Ricardo Diaz said he would file a petition for habeas corpus before the Supreme Court to compel the lower court to remand the convicted Marine to US embassy custody while the conviction is under appeal.

He said this provision was clearly stated in the visiting forces agreement governing US forces accused of committing a crime in the host country while taking part in joint military exercises in the Philippines.

"The judicial proceedings in this case are not yet completed," Diaz stressed.