AP

Bahrain, Jun 23: A US sailor who raped an expatriate woman in Bahrain has been sentenced to three years in prison and a discharge, the US Navy has said.

A court-martial convicted Aviation Technician Third Class Brandon Jerome King of rape, forcible sodomy, adultery and indecent assault, said Lt Denise Garcia, spokeswoman for the US Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. 

The verdict and sentence were handed down to King, of York, Pennsylvania, on June 16, but the case came to public attention only this week. The five-member military jury gave the 26-year-old King a bad conduct discharge as well as three years imprisonment in a Navy brig in the United States, Garcia said. It was not immediately clear when the discharge would take effect. 

Garcia described the victim as a woman who was neither American nor Bahraini, but an expatriate who lived in the tiny Persian Gulf island kingdom.King, who is married, faced the possibility of penalties that ranged from forfeiture of pay to life imprisonment.  Garcia said King could request the Navy Commander of Southwest Asia to reduce his sentence. King had not made a formal appeal yet, she said.

Garcia said the rape occurred October 25, 2006, at the Manama home of the woman, who had been a friend of King's.  Local police reported the crime to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Garcia said.  King was being held yesterday at the US Army stockade at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. Garcia said he would be sent within days to serve his sentence at the US brig. King had been working on the US Navy base in Bahrain until his five-day court-martial started June 12.

The last court-martial in Bahrain took place in November 2005, when a sailor was sentenced to two years in prison and a bad conduct discharge on charges including steroid usage and distribution. About 3,000 US military personnel are based in Bahrain, where the US Navy has maintained a presence since 1949.