Lawyers of convicted US Marine bring custody issue to higher court

Dec 14, 2006, 15:22 GMT

Manila - Lawyers of a US Marine convicted of rape in the Philippines elevated a request Thursday to the Court of Appeals for their client to be turned over to US custody.

Lance Corporal Daniel Smith was being held at the Makati City jail in metropolitan Manila since he was convicted of raping a Filipino woman and sentenced to life in prison on December 4.

On Wednesday, Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Benjamin Pozon rejected a US embassy petition for custody of Smith while his lawyers appealed his conviction.

Pozon stressed that a provision of a security pact between the United States and Philippines that all American military personnel accused of crimes could be in US custody until all judicial proceedings are completed no longer applied to Smith because he had been convicted.

But Smith's lawyers and the US embassy alleged that Pozon was misunderstanding the provisions of the visiting force agreement.

'We already filed a petition with the Court of Appeals, asking it to reverse the ruling of Judge Pozon,' said Jose Justiniano, one of Smith's attorneys.

'We believe he committed a grave abuse of discretion when he denied our motion,' he added.

US embassy spokesman Matthew Lussenhop insisted that based on the visiting forces agreement (VFA) with the Philippines, 'Lance Corporal Smith should be in US custody.'

'We don't have any issue or objection to the judge's verdict of the case or the concept of the trial,' he said. 'Our specific concern is the terms of the VFA are respected.'

Smith was convicted of raping a 23-year-old Filipino woman in November 2005 inside a van in Olongapo City, 90 kilometres north of Manila.

His three co-accused - Lance Corporals Keith Silkwood and Dominic Duplantis and Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier - were acquitted for lack of evidence. They have since returned to their base in Japan.

The four were among thousands of US soldiers who participated in joint military exercises in the Philippines last year.