Category: crime & punishment

It is a good day for Lee Jae-myung who many consider the front runner to be the next president of Korea:

An appeals court on Wednesday acquitted opposition leader Lee Jae-myung of lying as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election, overturning a lower court’s sentence of a suspended prison term.

The decision by the Seoul High Court removed a major legal hurdle for Lee, as a suspended prison term, if finalized, would have stripped him of his parliamentary seat and barred him from running in the next presidential election.

The appellate ruling can still be overturned by the Supreme Court.

Yonhap

First of all the law to prosecute politicians for lying seems like one that can be easily weaponized by the political opposition. With that said here is what Lee was accused of lying about:

During the initial trial, the opposition leader was found guilty of lying during a media interview in December 2021 that he did not play golf with the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive of Seongnam Development Corp., which was behind a corruption-ridden development project in Seongnam, south of Seoul, when Lee was the city’s mayor.

Lee was also found guilty of lying during a parliamentary audit of the Gyeonggi provincial government in October 2021 that he was under pressure from the land ministry to rezone the former site of the Korea Food Research Institute in Seongnam.

The site was later developed into apartment complexes by a private developer, and allegations were raised that Lee rezoned the land to give preferential treatment to the company.

In November, the lower court sentenced Lee to one year in prison, suspended for two years, for making false statements in violation of the Public Official Election Act.

In reversing that decision, however, the Seoul High Court said none of the four remarks Lee made during the campaign about allegedly not knowing Kim qualified as false statements. That included the remark about golf.

“He cannot be considered to have lied that they did not play golf, and it is difficult to recognize the remark as false,” the appeals court said.

On the alleged pressure from the land ministry, the court acknowledged that Lee “came under pressure from various angles.”

“His remark that he was threatened with charges of dereliction of duty could be an exaggerated expression of the considerable pressure he felt at the time, but it is difficult to recognize as false,” the court said.

From this article to me it is unclear whether he played golf with Kim Moon-ki and instead of lying about the pressure from the land ministry the appeals court believes he was just exaggerating. That is the area of this law that can be easily weaponized. Politicians exaggerate and bend the truth all the time. Should they be prosecuted everytime they do this?

Fining and deporting him after he pays his fine is probably the proper punishment for this attention seeking idiot:

An American YouTuber known as Johnny Somali, who is currently on trial for offensive behavior, could be deported and banned from reentering South Korea if convicted, a local lawyer said.

The 24-year-old whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael faces three charges, which include obstruction of business and violations of the Minor Offenses Act. He is not physically detained, although he is banned from leaving the country.

Kim Ju-hyeong, a senior attorney at the law firm Majung, who specializes in immigration and industrial accident law, said if he is found guilty of any of the charges, the local immigration office will likely demand he leave the country.

“Foreigners are ordered to leave the country, either voluntarily or forcibly, if their criminal actions result in a fine of more than 3 million won ($2,058). Considering the multiple charges against Ismael and the serious nature of his offenses, it is very unlikely that he will receive a lighter penalty than this,” he said.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This is a pretty sick guy to not only kill his girlfriend, but continue to live in an apartment where he hid her body in cement on his balcony:

A 58-year-old man has been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend 16 years ago, after her remains were discovered during construction work.

Geoje Police and the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency said Monday they had arrested the man on suspicion of killing his live-in girlfriend in 2008. The man is accused of fatally striking the victim, who was in her 30s at the time, with a blunt object during an argument on Oct. 10 that year, at their residence in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province.

The suspect then put the body inside a suitcase and hid it on the outdoor balcony next to the rooftop of the building. He then covered the luggage with bricks and poured cement over it to evade discovery.

The crime was uncovered 16 years later when the landlord of the building found the suitcase containing the body while conducting demolition work to prevent water leaks.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This is a horrible incident over in Daejeon:

 A female teacher in her 40s stabbed an eight-year-old student to death at an elementary school in the central city of Daejeon on Monday and inflicted stab wounds on herself, authorities said.

Earlier, police found the two with stab wounds on the second floor of an elementary school building in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, at around 6 p.m. after the student’s parent reported her missing from an after-school art class.

Rescuers transported the girl to a hospital in an unconscious state, but she later died. The teacher, who sustained stab wounds to the neck and arm, reportedly remained conscious. 

Police later said the teacher admitted to the crime during a subsequent investigation, with officials determining that she might have inflicted the injuries on herself afterward.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the female teacher had a history of depression before the incident and survived the suicide attempt.

Here is an update on the embattled daughter of former President Moon:

Prosecutors on Wednesday indicted former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter without physical detention over alleged drunk driving and illegally operating a house-sharing business.

Moon Da-hye collided with a taxi in Seoul’s Itaewon district while trying to change lanes on Oct 5. Her blood alcohol concentration was measured at 0.149 percent at the time, exceeding the 0.08 percent threshold for driver’s license revocation.

She is also accused of running an Airbnb business without official registration at three locations, comprising a studio apartment and villa in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo district, and a house on the southern resort island of Jeju.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The globalist left calls people like this cultural enrichers. I don’t think the Japanese need this cultural enrichment:

In a shocking case from Japan’s Tokyo, a 31-year-old Pakistani man was on Thursday arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a female high school student on a JR Chuo Line train.

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, the Pakistani national, identified as Afzal Muhammad, allegedly groped the student’s breast on the Takao Station-bound train last month. The police added that the accused forced the girl off the train at the last stop, took her into the bushes near the station and sexually assaulted her.

MSN

You can read more at the link.

Anyone caught harming the police or damaging property is hopefully punished according to law. I did not like seeing mandatory service policemen getting assaulted by violent leftists over the years and the Korean right should not be doing the same thing:

Law enforcement agencies on Sunday condemned the violent protests at the Seoul Western District Court, the first-ever riot targeting the judiciary in South Korea, vowing to restore order and hold those responsible accountable. Sparked by the formal arrest of President Yoon Suk Yeol earlier in the day, the attacks have sent shockwaves through the country.

After the court granted a warrant for Yoon’s extended detention at 2:50 a.m. Sunday, protesters forcefully entered the court by climbing over walls and smashing windows with ashtrays, stones, plastic chairs and trash at around 3:10 a.m.

The protesters also assaulted police officials stationed around the building by spraying fire extinguishers and striking them with shields and batons seized from the police. Around 30 police officials were injured in the process of restraining the protesters, according to police.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the article says that 89 people were arrested. Now compare this to the massively more violent U.S. beef protests where only 13 people were arrested and President Moon ended up giving them a pardon.

It does not look like it is a great time to be on Okinawa right now with the increased scrutiny on military crimes:

Government officials representing Japan and Okinawa repeated pleas to the U.S. military to discipline its population following a fourth sexual assault allegation against a service member on Okinawa in just over a year. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi urged U.S. Forces Japan to “tighten discipline and thoroughly prevent reoccurrences” of criminal incidents involving service members, according to video of a Thursday news conference posted on Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s website.

“Generally speaking, crimes and accidents caused by U.S. service members cause strong anxiety to the local community and shouldn’t happen,” Hayashi said. “The important thing is that the series of preventive measures announced by the U.S. side do actually prevent accidents and crimes.” Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki on Wednesday expressed “strong anger” on social media platform X about the latest case, in which Okinawa police allege a Marine in his 30s injured a woman during a sexual assault in November. That day, Okinawa Prefectural Police forwarded the case to prosecutors for possible charges, according to a police spokesman.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I had no idea that Korea has never exonerated and released someone while in prison before:

When Kim Shin-hye was put behind bars after being found guilty of killing her father in 2000, she was only 23 years old. After spending 24 years in prison, she was declared innocent in a court ruling.

Judges at the Gwangju District Court on Monday overturned her conviction in her retrial and ordered the Jangheung Correctional Institution to release Kim, who is now 47.

“This should never be repeated,” Kim said as she exited the facility. “It could’ve been corrected (earlier). But it took 25 years. (In prison,) I thought a lot about why it should take such a long time … I’ll do my part to prevent a recurrence of such tragedy.”

It is the first case of a prisoner being exonerated and released for a wrongful conviction while still serving time in prison in Korea.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link that explains how a false confession and misinformation by the prosecutors caused her to be convicted.