Monday, December 04, 2006
Reading of verdict on Subic rape case starts (1:25 p.m.)
MANILA - Regional Trial Court Judge Benjamin Pozon calls to order the court session on the promulgation of the landmark rape case involving four US Marines, ending a monthslong emotional trial that has tested a US-Philippine military pact.
As of this posting, Pozon's Clerk of Court is reading part of the court's decision, which is the narrative portion of the rape incident.
The four US Marines standing in front the court were intently listening the Clerk of Court.
A 23-year-old Filipino woman, known publicly by her pseudonym "Nicole," accused Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith of sexually assaulting her while she was drunk last Nov. 1, while Staff Sgt. Chad Carpentier, Lance Cpl. Keith Silkwood and Lance Cpl. Dominic Duplantis allegedly stood by.
If convicted, they could face up to 40 years in prison.
The incident happened inside a moving van at the former US Naval base at Subic Bay after a night of drinking with Smith, the woman said. The Marines had just finished a counterterrorism exercise.
"In case of a conviction it will be, I think, a permanent blot on the record of the US servicemen in the Philippines," the woman's lawyer, Evalyn Ursua, said. "Getting a conviction is important for all of us because it will set a precedent."
An acquittal, she said, would make it difficult for other women to seek justice.
No other rape case involving US soldiers in the Philippines has reached court - not even during the decades until the US closed down its last base in the country in 1992.(AP/Sunnex) |
