US soldier in rape case moved to South Korean prison

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A US soldier accused of raping a 67-year-old South Korean woman has been transferred from police custody to prison pending trial, local police said Wednesday. Geronimo Ramirez, a 23-year-old private with the US 2nd Infantry Division, had been in custody for questioning since his arrest early Sunday. A court late Tuesday approved a police request for his transfer to South Korean prison facilities. No formal charges have been laid yet. US military authorities have already called the alleged crime "an affront" and General B.B. Bell, commander of US forces in the country, has apologized. "I am shocked and horrified at the egregious nature of this crime, and I am extremely upset by the senseless act against an elderly woman," Bell said. Some 29,000 US troops are stationed here to support the South Korean armed forces against any attack from the North, in a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean war. However, crimes involving US troops have been an irritant in the military alliance, stoking anti-American sentiment here. In 1992 a US soldier murdered a bar girl, while two schoolgirls died in a traffic accident involving US armored vehicles in 2002. The latest rape case came with Washington and Seoul in talks on relocating American military bases by 2008. greetings. : )