Category: crime & punishment

This is a bizarre murder case:

A woman believed to be the mother of two children whose bodies were found in suitcases in New Zealand last month was apprehended in South Korea on Thursday, police said.

The woman, known as a South Korean-born New Zealand citizen in her 40s, was arrested at an apartment in Ulsan, 307 kilometers southeast of Seoul, the National Police Agency said.

Local police had tracked down the woman at the request of New Zealand police after the remains of the two children believed to have been killed in 2018 at ages 7 and 10, respectively, were found on Aug. 11 in suitcases bought by a resident of Auckland, New Zealand, at an auction.

New Zealand police then launched a manhunt after presuming the woman as the mother of the two children and the murder suspect.

The woman born in South Korea is said to have acquired New Zealand nationality after her immigration, and her husband is reported to have died of a disease there.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if this woman killed her two kids the police may want to investigate the circumstances around her husband’s death as well.

As the old saying goes, the cover up is usually worse than the original crime:

The 100-day special counsel investigation into the sexual abuse of Air Force Master Sgt. Lee Ye-ram came to a close on Tuesday, with eight officers indicted on new charges.

Special counsel Ahn Mi-young told a news conference that the officers of the Air Force’s 20th fighter wing where Lee served appear to have sought to help the perpetrator rather than the victim, and that the military investigators did not actively work to bring justice.

“Let this be a warning that when the armed forces investigate their own and attempt a cover-up, there will be consequences,” she said, adding that she worked with the “determination to fix the old flaws of the military criminal justice systems.”

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

It is pretty amazing that after all these years the police were able to make an arrest in regards to this bank heist:

On Dec. 21, 2001, an employee of a KB Kookmin Bank was fatally shot in the parking lot of one of its branches in Daejeon, and the two men involved took off with 300 million won ($223,000).    
   
More than two decades later, police have arrested the suspects.    
   
On Saturday, the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency said they identified the suspects using DNA samples taken from the crime scene and requested arrest warrants for two men on charges of murder and robbery. 

The Daejeon District Court issued arrest warrants on the same day for the two suspects, citing the risk of them fleeing or destroying evidence.  
   
Around 10 a.m. on the day of the crime, one of the suspects shot the 43-year-old bank manager surnamed Kim in the underground parking lot of Kookmin Bank’s Dunsan Branch in Daejeon’s Seo District. The bank robbers took off in a black vehicle with the bag of cash.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

I thought the accusations against Lee Jae-myung’s wife would just go away after the election, but it appears investigators must have some really good evidence to go after her like this:

 The wife of former ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung was grilled by police Tuesday about allegations related to her personal use of a provincial government corporate credit card years ago.

Kim Hye-kyung left the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency in Suwon, 50 kilometers south of Seoul, at about 6:50 p.m. after undergoing five hours of questioning, accompanied by her lawyer.

Upon emerging from the police agency, she was asked by reporters about whether she admitted to suspicions related to her corporate credit card use but did not reply.

Kim is accused of using a credit card of the Gyeonggi government for personal shopping and eating, while her husband was Gyeonggi governor from 2018-2021.

She is also suspected of forcing civil servants to run her personal errands, such as getting drug prescriptions, buying prescription drugs on her behalf and paying for meals at restaurants. 

Allegations of Kim’s corporate credit card misuse and other misconduct surfaced early this year ahead of the March 9 presidential election.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This stunt and the government reaction is probably going to lead to a lot of new Youtube followers for this guy:

Police are investigating a man who drove a motorcycle without a shirt in southern Seoul over the weekend and a woman who was sitting behind him in a bikini, officials said Tuesday.

The Seoul Gangnam Police Station is mulling over the possibility of bringing the charge of overexposure against the “bikini biker couple” under the Minor Offenses Act, the officials said.

The police action came after various online communities were flooded Sunday with eyewitness accounts of a shirtless man and a bikini-clad woman riding in a motorcycle in the rain in southern Seoul and adjacent areas. Both were wearing helmets.

The man known to be a YouTuber with about 19,000 subscribers has reportedly told a local media outlet that he just wanted to show how he enjoys riding a motorcycle freely, adding the speed was maintained at 20 to 30 kph at that time.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a pretty horrible crime that happened at a university in Incheon:

Police referred a university freshman accused of raping a schoolmate and causing her to fall to her death to the prosecution Friday for potential indictment with an additional charge of filming the rape scene, officials said. 

“I am sincerely sorry,” said the 20-year-old student of Inha University in Incheon, west of Seoul, as he was transferred to the prosecution, without responding to questions from reporters, including on whether and why he did not help her immediately after the fall. 

He was detained by police last Friday hours after the victim was found dead apparently after a fall from a campus building. She was found lying naked on the ground at 3:49 a.m. reportedly with blood on her head, mouth and ears.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

I can understand why this guy has a grudge against the Unification Church, but it in no way justifies murdering Shinzo Abe:

The mother of the man suspected of murdering former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe donated more than 100 million yen ($720,000) to the Unification Church, a relative said.

The contributions to the religious group included 50 million yen she received from a life insurance policy taken on her husband, as well as proceeds from property sales, the relative told The Asahi Shimbun.

She was declared bankrupt in 2002.

Her son, Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, has been sent to prosecutors on suspicion of murdering Abe, 67, who was gunned down on July 8 while giving an election campaign speech in Nara.

Asahi.com

You can read more at the link.

This is something that many civilians don’t understand that a military jury just needs a majority to convict someone. This makes the threshold of convictions easier:

A Germany-based military judge’s ruling that a unanimous guilty verdict was required to convict an Army officer facing sexual assault charges was rejected by the service’s top appeals court.

Lt. Col. Andrew Dial initially faced a court-martial in January, but proceedings were delayed after military judge Col. Charles Pritchard said that allowing a split verdict would violate Dial’s constitutional rights.

Prosecutors challenged that decision before the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, arguing that Pritchard’s ruling was based on faulty reasoning. 

In a June decision, the appeals court concurred, saying it was not persuaded by the argument that because military and civilian court procedures are generally similar, military defendants are “similarly situated” to civilian counterparts.

“Rather, we adhere to the well-established view that ‘the military is a specialized society separate from civilian society’ which has, by necessity, developed laws and traditions of its own during its long history,” the court said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This woman lost her mind on the subway and is now going to jail for it:

A Seoul court sentenced a 26-year-old woman to one year in prison Wednesday for smashing an elderly man on the head repeatedly with her mobile phone after a viral video showing the violent scene enraged many.

The incident happened in March in a subway train on Line No. 9 when the two got into a fight after the victim in his 60s chided her for spitting on the subway car. The woman was seen in the video shouting and beating the man on the head with her phone repeatedly.

The violence caused him to bleed in the head.

As the woman subsequently stood trial on charges of inflicting injuries and insults, additional violence charges were added for allegedly hitting a passenger and pouring a beverage over the passenger’s head in a subway train in October.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Former President Lee is temporarily released from prison for health issues, but I would not be surprised if this is a prelude to him being pardoned in the near future:

The prosecution suspended the imprisonment of former President Lee Myung-bak for three months due to health reasons Tuesday, more than a year and a half after the Supreme Court finalized a 17-year sentence for him for corruption.

The Suwon District Prosecutors Office made the decision to release Lee from the Anyang Correctional Institution, after the 81-year-old former president filed for suspension of his imprisonment earlier this month, citing deteriorating health.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.