Request Made to Move Japanese Rape Trial : Asia: Mothers of two defendants say political pressure over U.S. bases in Okinawa may result in harsher judgments.

The mothers of two U.S. Marines charged with raping a Japanese schoolgirl asked Thursday to move the trial off Okinawa, arguing that local judges are under pressure to harshly punish their sons.

Final statements in the trial of three U.S. servicemen accused in the Sept. 4 attack will be delayed while a higher court considers the request, but its ruling is not likely to postpone sentencing expected in late January.

The mothers, Daisey Harp and Barbara Cannon, say Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota and others have publicly linked their sons’ trial to the controversy over the unpopular U.S. bases on the island.

“There is clearly a fear that judges who have to live here in Okinawa face pressure,” said Michael Griffith, an American attorney advising the families of the two Marines.

The 12-year-old girl’s rape has outraged Okinawans, who have long protested that their small tropical island is forced to host two-thirds of the 47,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan.

A change of a trial’s location is extremely rare in Japan. In formally submitting the request, the mothers of Marine Pfc. Rodrico Harp, 21, of Griffin, Ga., and Marine Pfc. Kendrick Ledet, 20, of Waycross, Ga., ignored the advice of Japanese defense attorneys, who say it will only hurt their sons’ defense.

“I think it would be better just to go on with the case as it has proceeded,” said Harp’s lawyer, Mitsunobu Matsunaga. “You can move the trial, but you can’t move the facts of the case.”

The rape trial has touched off protests against the U.S. military in Okinawa. In advertisements in the New York Times and Okinawa Times, Gov. Ota linked the rape to the bases, which cover about a fifth of the island.

The High Court in Fukuoka prefecture will probably decide within the next few weeks whether to move the trial, Matsunaga said. If it does, the panel of three judges could still render a verdict in late January, as has been expected all along, after a rescheduled final session.

Also accused is Navy Seaman Marcus Gill, 22, of Woodville, Texas, the only one of the servicemen who has admitted to raping the girl; the two Marines say they helped to abduct her but did not rape her.

All three are accused of rape causing injury, which carries a possible jail term of three years to life.

The Americans are being tried together and have often contradicted and blamed one another under questioning by prosecutors and defense lawyers.