US officer arrested in alleged assault on Japanese woman

A U.S. Navy officer who was arrested Friday on charges of groping and punching a Japanese woman on a commercial air flight from the United States has been released to U.S. custody.

A spokesperson for U.S. Naval Forces-Japan said a Navy lieutenant assigned to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron Five One (HSM-51), based at the Atsugi Naval Air Facility, Japan, was handed over to U.S. authorities late Saturday under terms of the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Japanese governments.

According to Japanese press reports, the officer was arrested in an alleged assault on a 19-year-old female college student while on a flight from San Diego to Japan.

It was the second high-profile arrest of a U.S. serviceman for sexually related offenses in Japan in less than a week and could further complicate efforts to relocate a key U.S. airbase on the island of Okinawa.