Okinawa’s alleged rape case: even the criminals are protesting!
Read this story today in one of the online tabloids in Japan (the Mainichi) and it brought a smile to my face. Am sure you will be suitably amused too.
Fugitive caught after making call to cops to protest Okinawa rape case
YOKOHAMA — A man on a nationwide wanted list has been arrested after he called police to complain about a U.S. serviceman being arrested for the alleged rape of a schoolgirl and gave them his phone number, allowing investigators to track him down, police said.
Okinawa Prefecture-native Mitsumasa Iha, a scaffolding worker from Yokohama, was arrested for theft and admitted to the allegations.
“I had no idea I was on the wanted list,” the 25-year-old told the police.
Police said that Iha stole about 90,000 yen in cash and some underwear from a woman living next to him in an Osaka apartment in separate thefts that occurred in June and July last year. Police placed Iha on a nationwide wanted list in November last year.
Following the arrest for rape of a U.S. serviceman accused of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl on Sunday, Iha called the Okinawa Police Station on Tuesday and ordered officers to “thoroughly investigate the case.” Iha claimed to be a representative of a right-wing political group and gave officers his real name and mobile phone number.
The officer who took the call realized Iha was a fugitive and notified the Nishi Police Station in Osaka, which had put him on the nationwide wanted list. Officers from Nishi Police Station called Iha’s mobile phone and talked to him. Iha gave himself up to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police on Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by the president of the company he now works for.
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Now I’m not too sure why the president of the company he now works for accompanied him to the police station, unless they were hoping a few bows and being sacked from his job would be deemed a worth punishment for stealing 90,000 yen and some underwear. Just goes to show you should never underestimate the stupidity of the general population (you ladies & gents who read this are excluded, of course!). No more real news this morning about this alleged rape but I’m keeping my ear to the ground and will report on here if there are any developments.
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