For a country so preoccupied by what the ‘outside’ world thinks of it, it really boggles the mind that court rulings like this are even made. I can’t even begin to tell you how angry I am right now. Despite Korea’s shining infrastructure, high speed internet connections, and top of the line handphones, it’s tragic stories like these that people remember forever.
New ’stuff’ comes out all the time, but deplorable acts like this happen, thankfully, only once in a while. And when brutal and barbaric acts like this do happen, and the court system does nothing, that’s what people passionately talk about when sending email updates and speak with folks back home. I know I sure will, and I hope all of you do too. This story deserves more press, and the judge who made the ruling should be fired for dereliction of duty.
A court handed down suspended jail terms to four family members who repeatedly raped a teenage relative who suffered from an intellectual disability.
The Cheongju District Court Thursday sentenced an 87-year-old grandfather and two uncles of a 16-year-old girl to four-year suspended prison terms for sexually assaulting and raping the girl for the last seven years. Another uncle received a three-year suspended jail term.
The court acknowledged that their crime was “sinful” as they used the young girl, who is their family member, to satisfy their sexual desires. But it gave the suspended terms, saying, “The accused have fostered the girl in her parents’ place. Considering her disability, she will also need their care and help in living in the future.”
The court added it took the accused people’s old age and illness into consideration.
Citizens strongly denounced the ruling, saying the punishments were too lenient for the grave crime. Internet users said it is absurd to release them to “take care of her,” as she needs help from others, not from rapists. They also said those committing such a crime do not deserve consideration regarding old age or illnesses.
Some bloggers are collecting signatures to oust the judge who made the ruling. The prosecution also decided to appeal. “One of them even has a previous conviction for rape but was given a suspended term. The ruling is unacceptable,” a prosecutor said. (Link)
The court actually entertained the idea that the rapists would take care of the girl in the future? The court took the age and illness of the accused into consideration? How about taking the age and illness of the victim into consideration? A foreign friend of mine who has been in Korea as long as I have said “why am I not surprised” and my Korean fiance said “useless judicial system”. The judicial system is broken, and this is a textbook definition of how broken it is.
A few months ago, an article in The Korea Herald reported that the number of disturbances occurring in Korean courtrooms are on the rise. Apparently, trials are often delayed due to defendants swearing, screaming, and even throwing objects at the judge.
In a civil case in July 2006, two defendants threw eggs and a bag of feces at the judicial seats in the Chuncheon District Court, criticizing the judgment.
I can’t think of a better way to let a judge know that you are pissed with his/her judgment than to throw a bag of shit and some eggs in their direction. It really is amazing how immature and absurd some people can be. What’s really upsetting is that these types of incidents are increasing…and not decreasing. You’d think a nation moving toward “advanced” status would see these types of actions go down.
So why are incidents like this on the rise? Well…
“The public’s respect for the legal order is rapidly diminishing,” said Jang Nak-won, a judge of the Incheon District Court. “The court may have to come up with countermeasures such as reinforcing the court guard crew, but the key to solving the problem is the public acknowledgment of the court authority.”
Yes. Judge Jang makes a good point…but why, in the first place, has the publics respect for the legal order diminished and why doesn’t society respect the authority of the court…hmmmm I think the following may have a whole lot to do with it.
The Justice Ministry said it would pardon the heads of Hyundai Motor as well as the SK Group and Hanwha conglomerates, who were convicted of crimes such as fraud, embezzlement and assault. . . . The pardon also covered 10,400 convicted felons, including 12 politicians, erased punitive actions taken against 328,000 bureaucrats and restored the eligibility of 500 fishermen to apply for sailing licenses. (Link)
Perhaps if Korean society-at-large saw that the rich and powerful were treated at least a little bit more like the rest of society is treated by the courts, they would not be so quick to throw shit at the system. And perhaps it might be a good idea to throw rapists, wife beaters, and people who burn shit down into jail as well.
If rapists, wife beaters, people who burn shit down, and corrupt corporate asshats don’t go to jail for the serious crimes they commit, why should anyone go to jail?
25/11/2008 at 10:32 am Permalink
Sixteen years old. For the last seven years. Do the math. Mercy jeremiah!
This is so unbelievable — between this and former freedom fighters pissing on the suffering of the comfort women , denouncing plans to build a museum dedicated to the comfort women at the Independence Park in Seodaemun, it’s a real race to the bottom for the assholishest of Korea’s people.
I wonder if the Hanhwa CEO will see fit to re-enter the race.
25/11/2008 at 10:47 am Permalink
The ruling is absurd, obscene, and terrible for the poor child! I don’t believe that I have ever heard a positive comment made about the Korean justice system, and I doubt that any will be made in lieu of this event.
The whole network needs to be completely overhauled, and I have the perfect solution: Be tough (reasonable?) on crime. When people break the law, arrest/fine/imprison them. No more of this slap-on-the-wrist BS. I don’t care if it’s a simple traffic violation – enforce the law!!
Also, Korea needs to do away with anonymity rights of the guilty. If there are disturbed rapists out there, I have the right to know if it’s a 김, 이, or 박. I don’t want to work for them or have them teacher my children.
25/11/2008 at 10:48 am Permalink
*teaching (I wish there was an edit button -.-)
On a side note, can anybody tell me what the usual sentencing is for this kind of crime?
25/11/2008 at 12:48 pm Permalink
Cheongju? Must be the same judge.
25/11/2008 at 12:48 pm Permalink
Word on the street is that Koreans are upset, but there have only been another thousand signatures to the petition since last night, bringing the total to 13,734 as of now. When I last checked the news wasn’t showing up on Naver’s ranking of the top stories. The word should be put out there.
Maybe throw the link for the petition up there? http://agora.media.daum.net/petition/view?id=63065
I know others on Dave’s have sent the story to news outlets back home, and I sent a link over to Fox News. No idea if that ever gets anybody’s attention, b/c they probably get all kinds of links, but it’s worth a shot. It’s great that Koreans are pissed about this particular judge, and want him removed, but that doesn’t do anything or the failing system. Maybe with some international attention/outrage, people will start to get the idea that this type of behavior isn’t acceptable in the least regardless of family relationship. I didn’t want to post the link in my original post b/c it would be too crass, but when I saw the KT story I thought of the case a year or two ago where a father wasn’t convicted of molesting his stepdaughter, even though he touched her all over the place, because he was simply showing his love for her:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/nation_view.asp?newsIdx=12875&categoryCode=117
25/11/2008 at 1:40 pm Permalink
It’s the old “봐주세요” as “feel sorry for the victimizer” approach. There really is almost no sense of accountability in this culture, I am sorry to say. People are “sorry” to death, but it rarely changes personal behavior, nor does anyone ever get properly punished for what they do. Rape a young girl for years, do no time. Smoke a joint, go to jail.
To add to what Mark said, “Do the moral math.”
25/11/2008 at 2:07 pm Permalink
Insane.
25/11/2008 at 7:10 pm Permalink
If news outlets back home don’t pick it up, certainly my large network of friends on Facebook will see the story and the link. And like the Prell shampoo commercial of the 70’s, “they’ll tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on”.
As Metro pointed out, a joint is automatic jail time, but rape, sexual assault, aggravated assault, and the like get no jail time. How is that even possible?
26/11/2008 at 1:53 am Permalink
Okay, this is how it works.
Generally speaking, higher ranked graduates from the universities apply and get the judgeship and prosecutor positions. They advance in position over the years and those who don’t quite make the grades are periodically trimmed. Many of them go into defense work, and higher they got before they got trimmed, more influence they have. So in Korea, it’s not necessarily a good thing to get a defense lawyer with 20 year defense experience. That may mean his grades were never good enough to get on the judge/prosecutor track, or he got trimmed relatively early and has alot more “hyunbae” in the system than “huebae.”
Anyway, let’s say a judge almost makes it to the top tier but was released and he turns to defense work. While relatively inexperienced as a defense attorney, he has a network of friends and colleagues from his years as a judge. More significantly, he has a number of “huebae” from his university and his career he had helped and cultivated over the years and who work in prosecutor’s offices and in the judge’s offices. As their “hyunbae” he receives a lot of deference that other defense attorneys can only dream about.
So this family of rapists hire this defense attorney, and he goes and calls in his old debt, and works out a sweet deal.
System is rotten on more ways than you can imagine. But it does leave a relatively clear way for the rich and powerful, so rather than hoping for a systemic change that will never come, try to be rich and powerful if you can. That should explain a lot on how many Koreans behave the way they do.
26/11/2008 at 8:51 am Permalink
I was watching CNN today, and there was a guy in England who behaved in a similar matter. The story compared the guy to Joeseph Fritzel of Austria. I think this case deserves similar treatment by the international media.
26/11/2008 at 9:54 am Permalink
If you’re going to go and change the subject, 3gyupsal, then could you at least provide us with a link -.-
26/11/2008 at 10:45 am Permalink
Didn’t mean to change the subject. I’m saying that the chungju case is equally if not more preposterous than what ends up on cnn.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/25/court.rapes/index.html
didn’t have the link because I saw it on T.V.
26/11/2008 at 11:31 am Permalink
Ick!
Although this is just as sick as this case we have here in South Korea, the man was convicted and will receive at least 19.5 years (he got 25 life sentences). However, I think that maybe you miss the point that most of the poster here were making.
People want the Korean case to get more international attention because the men convicted only received a slap on the wrist. They won’t have to serve any “extra” jail time. Not only that, but the girl that they raped will be released back into their “care.” The monster in England was convicted, will probably not be released, and his daughters (obviously) will not have to go back to living with him.
26/11/2008 at 2:00 pm Permalink
Smoke a joint —> go to jail, do not pass Go, you druggie scumbag.
Repeatedly gang rape an underage retarded girl who is in your own family
—> Released to go home with the victim in your care, so you can continue to gang rape her
Korea Sparkling!
26/11/2008 at 3:30 pm Permalink
Ian, I do get the point. I am simply saying that this case is as terrible and preposterous as the English one. The reason why it is so preposterous is because of the ruling. I felt it redundant to say so. Yes you are correct. The judge should be fired and be given a pshycological evaluation. If you bear the job of “judge” you should be able to display smart judgement. This guy obiously doesn’t have that, or for that matter any kind of judgement that makes sense to any person who isn’t him.