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4 teenage children of Yokota airmen jailed

Four teenage children of airmen at Yokota Air Base, Japan, are in jail in Tokyo and could face charges of attempted murder in Japanese court.

The teens are accused of an incident in August in which they allegedly strung a rope across a road that caused a woman to crash her motorcycle and fracture her skull, the Associated Press reported.

The suspects were arrested by base security forces on Saturday and turned over to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which has custody of them, according to base spokesman Maj. Chris Watt.

“U.S. military officials transferred custody of the dependent suspects as part of our full cooperation with local Japanese law enforcement officials and in conjunction with the Status of Forces Agreement and other government-to-government agreements between the U.S. and Japan,” Watt said in an e-mail. “The Japanese legal system will determine what is next for the four children.”

Tokyo police refused to comment on the case, AP reported.

Watt said he cannot release the suspects’ names because they are minors.

According to Japanese media reports, a woman was riding her motorbike on Aug. 13 when she hit the rope and fell, fracturing her skull. She told officials she had seen the teens nearby, and a surveillance videotape showed the four in the area, the reports said.

The base is providing support and assistance to the children’s parents, Watt said.

“While dependents are not entitled to military legal representation, Yokota legal officials are assisting the parents in obtaining civilian legal representation with the assistance of resources provided by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo,” he said.