A military woman experienced sexual violence at the hands of her colleagues.
In Japan< /strong> A court on December 12 found three former soldiers guilty of sexually assaulting their female colleague Rina Gona.
Reuters writes about this.
The incident of 24-year-old former Self-Defense Force member Rina Gona occurred in 2021 during her military service.
The violence occurred during a training exercise in the mountains, in a tent, when she said three male colleagues pinned her down and simulated sexual intercourse with her.
The girl immediately reported the incident to her superiors, but was unable to obtain testimony, so her complaint was rejected. Although there were other soldiers in the tent at the time who saw the crime.
At trial, the soldiers argued that their actions constituted sexual assault. Three men aged 29 to 31 were given suspended sentences of two years each.
“I think it was good for Japanese society that the court returned a guilty verdict and accepted the claims that I made from the very beginning. The verdict shows that you cannot do things for fun, such actions are a real crime.” , Gonoi told reporters outside the district court in Fukushima.
Rina Gonoy also said that after joining the military service in 2020, she was constantly persecuted.
After Rina Gonoi went public with her allegations in 2022, a rare move in conservative Japanese society, Japan's Ministry of Defense publicly apologized.
The department also announced that five men connected to the incident had been fired and four more disciplined, and launched a broad study of harassment in the military and military-related organizations that subsequently identified more than 1,400 complaints.< /p>
Time magazine included Rina Gonoy in its list of 100 new world leaders, and British Broadcasting Corp named her one of the 100 most powerful women in the world.
Gonoy also filed a civil case against her abusers and the government, seeking damages for the attack and continued failure to act despite her complaints.
“The cases come at an awkward time for Japan, which is trying to recruit more female soldiers and build up its army to hold off China and North Korea,” the newspaper writes.
Recall that another country opposed the start of negotiations with Ukraine on accession to the EU.
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