A US Marine has been indicted in Japan over the killing of a woman. The charges are murder and robbery.
An indictment is the formal accusation that sends a case towards trial. Prosecutors set out the charges and a court records them. It is not a verdict. The person named is presumed innocent unless a court finds otherwise, and the evidence still has to be heard. Until that happens, the indictment is an allegation, made in the proper form, and still to be proved.
Murder is the charge used for an unlawful killing. Robbery is the charge for taking property by force, or by threatening it. Both are on this indictment, and the reports say the victim was a woman. The next stage is a trial in Japan, where those allegations can be tested in public.
The court
The case sits in the Japanese system, not in a US military court. American service members based in Japan are not dealt with by the US forces for every offence. For a serious crime against a civilian, away from base duty, Japan has long been able to bring the prosecution itself. That is part of the agreement covering US forces in the country. A killing is the sort of case where that local route is used, because the victim is outside the US military community and the harm was done off duty.
The distinction is a practical one. A disciplinary hearing inside the forces is a different process from a criminal trial in a Japanese court, with Japanese prosecutors, Japanese rules of evidence, and a Japanese sentence if the charges are proved. The reports place this indictment in that second category.
A court date, a plea and any sentence come from the trial. The indictment is the start of the case.
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