A South Korean court yesterday reopened a decades-old case after a woman challenged her conviction for defending herself against sexual violence 61 years ago.
Choi Mal-ja was 19 when she was attacked by a 21-year-old man in the southern town of Gimhae in 1964.
He pinned her to the ground and forced his tongue into her mouth, court records showed.
Choi broke free by biting off about 1.5cm of his tongue.
In one of South Korea’s most contentious rulings on sexual violence, the aggressor received only six months in prison, suspended for two years, for trespassing and intimidation — but not attempted rape.
However, Choi was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and handed a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
The court said at the time that her action had “exceeded the reasonable bounds of legally permissible self-defense.”
Choi’s case gained renewed momentum decades later after women’s rights protests.
Choi filed for a retrial in 2020, but lower courts initially rejected her petition.
After years of campaigning and an appeal, South Korea’s top court finally ordered a retrial last year.
“For 61 years, the state made me live as a criminal,” Choi told reporters outside the Busan District Court ahead of yesterday’s retrial hearing.
She said she hoped future generations could “live in a world free from sexual violence where they can enjoy human rights and a happy life.”
Choi Sun-hye, executive director of the Seoul-based Korea Women’s Hotline counselling center, which supported her case, told reporters that her decision was also meant to “become a source of strength for other victims of sexual violence and correct past wrongs.”
At the retrial hearing, the prosecution asked the court to clear her of the past conviction, the Busan District Court told reporters.
A verdict is expected in September.
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
RSS