American naval officer is released from prison in Japan after years of efforts

Lt. Ridge Alkonis, the Navy officer imprisoned in Japan after killing two members of a Japanese family in a car crash, was headed to the United States on Wednesday after a years-long diplomatic effort to bring him home, officials said. the Biden administration. .

Lt. Alkonis, 35, was released from jail after serving half his sentence for negligent driving. Under the terms of the International Prisoner Transfer Program, established by a treaty between the United States and Japan, he would likely continue serving his sentence in the United States, government officials said.

The length of his incarceration will be determined by the U.S. Parole Commission, an independent arm of the Justice Department, officials said. The commission could reduce his sentence or have him serve part of it in home confinement. Lieutenant Alkonis will remain in custody in the United States until the commission makes a decision.

The case involving Lt. Alkonis, a sailor stationed at Yokosuka Naval Base, south of Tokyo, was set in motion one afternoon in May 2021, when the minivan he was driving near Mount Fuji pulled into the parking lot of a noodle restaurant, killing two deaths occurred. people.

The fallout since the accident has strained diplomatic ties between Japan and the United States, with his family and supporters insisting that Lieutenant Alkonis had suffered from altitude sickness and that he had been denied a fair trial in a foreign legal system that placed little value to his guilty plea and repeated apologies.

However, in Japan, Lieutenant Alkonis is widely seen as a criminal whose actions cost two innocent lives. The court, which ruled that he had fallen asleep after driving while drowsy, followed the wishes of the victims’ family to impose a “severe sentence” in the case, landing the American in prison for three years.

Officials said President Biden was personally involved in discussions leading to the lieutenant’s release. But they described the conversation as highly sensitive because the president and his top aides did not want to offend the Japanese government by suggesting they were disrespecting the country’s justice system and the need for accountability.

Lieutenant Alkonis’ family waged a long campaign to bring him home. Members of Congress joined the fight, arguing that he suffered a medical emergency while driving and should not be held liable for the resulting deaths.

Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, has led the effort to demand the sailor’s return. He has repeatedly threatened to push for a reconsideration of the US-Japan military cooperation agreement if Japan did not allow Lieutenant Alkonis to return home.

“If you return Lt. Alkonis to the US before midnight on February 28, 2023, we will do our best to forget that this whole thing never happened,” Mr Lee wrote in February. “It will be difficult, but we will try.”

Administration officials said Mr. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, worked personally with Japanese officials to secure the lieutenant’s return. Mr. Biden raised the issue with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan during a visit to the White House in January.

But officials said the release was not negotiated as it would be in a hostage situation with an adversary. Instead, the details of the release—and what will happen to Lieutenant Alkonis in the United States—were strictly determined by the Prisoner Transfer Treaty and the U.S. laws that created it.

The program, which started in 1977, was intended to facilitate the rehabilitation of prisoners, which is often difficult when they are held in other countries where they do not speak the language, officials said. Transfers will only take place with the consent of both countries and with the consent of the prisoner.

Two weeks ago, after the two governments reached an agreement, a U.S. official traveled to Japan to obtain permission from Lieutenant Alkonis and ensure he understood the terms.

The officials said the Biden administration had offered to provide information to the Parole Commission about Lt. Alkonis’ service record and any other information they requested. But the officials emphasized that neither the White House nor Justice Department officials legally played any role in the committee’s decision.

The officials also said the United States had not exchanged prisoners or given anything back to Japan.

The decision to bring Lt. Alkonis back to the United States did not change his conviction in Japan, officials said, and it did not mean the Biden administration was questioning the court’s conclusions there.

Since taking office, Mr. Biden has directed his national security team to focus on bringing captured Americans home. In most cases, this concerns people who have been labeled as ‘wrongfully detained’ by opponents. They included Brittney Griner, an American basketball player detained in Russia; five Americans who had been imprisoned in Iran; and several oil executives detained in Venezuela.

Officials said several prisoners had also been brought to the United States from friendly countries.