MANILA: The United States said yesterday it would cooperate with a Philippine prosecutor’s effort to question a murder suspect and four other US Marines over the killing of a transgender Filipino sex worker.
The prosecutor ordered the five US Marines to give depositions after police named one of them as a suspect in the October 11 hotel killing in the northern port of Olongapo.
“The United States will continue to assist in the investigation to help ensure justice is served,” US embassy spokeswoman Anna Richey said in an emailed response.
“This will include making the suspect, witnesses, and any evidence gathered available to the Philippine authorities.”
However the embassy said in a later statement the suspect’s lawyer decided whether he would appear before the prosecutor, and not the US government.
“Whether the suspect will appear on Tuesday is a decision that the suspect will make in consultation with Philippine legal counsel, in accordance with Philippine law,” the statement said.
Richey said the suspect was being held on board the USS Peleliu pending an investigation into the death of Jeffrey Laude, described by local police as a transgender sex worker.
The four other American marines sought by prosecutors were described by the Philippine foreign department on Friday as witnesses. The US Pacific Command earlier ordered the warship to remain at a port near Olongapo while the murder investigation was ongoing.
Police said they found the victim half-naked on the bathroom floor of a room with more than a dozen bruises, cuts and bite marks. They said the victim, who had checked in with the suspect just over an hour earlier, had died from “asphyxia by drowning”.
Police and the prosecutor both named the suspect as Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, attached to a North Carolina-based unit that had just taken part in joint military exercises in the Philippines.
AFP
