A Korean-American U.S. Army soldier who was sentenced by court-martial to 64 years in prison for child sex offenses has been arrested after deserting.
According to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID), Jonathan Kang Lee, who was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, was arrested by the CID on January 26, 12 days after he deserted on January 14, and is currently in custody.
Lee was sentenced to 64 years in prison on felony charges, including three counts of rape of a child and three counts of lewd acts against a child, at a military court-martial on January 19 while he was absent, a local media outlet reported.
The CID had issued a public advisory requesting assistance for Lee on January 24, 10 days after he went AWOL (absent without leave), and arrested him on January 26 at a house in Redmond, Washington.
BY YEJIN KIM, HOONSIK WOO [kim.yejin3@koreadaily.com]
