June 12, 2020. Prosecutors arrested and indicted apartment resident A (51) for assaulting the late apartment security guard Choi Hee-seok.
Mr. A, who was a resident of an apartment in Ui-dong, Seoul안전놀이터, continued to assault and threaten Mr. Choi after an argument with Mr. Choi over parking problems on April 21 of the same year. Mr. Choi, who suffered from Mr. A’s repeated assault and threats, complained about the damage on May 10 of the same year and said, “Mr. A is a face that enjoys torture. He committed suicide leaving a note saying, “Please punish him severely.”
Prosecutors said that on April 21, Mr. A assaulted Mr. Choi several times, starting with hitting his face, saying, “Why do you do what we are told not to do when we live by giving money for security?” In particular, when Mr. Choi reported the assault to the police, he visited Mr. Choi and imprisoned him in the security room.
Mr. A’s assault and threats continued until May 4, six days before Mr. Choi’s death. In particular, on May 4, he referred to Mr. Choi as ‘a farmhand’ through a text message and said, “I can’t forgive the endless lies,” and threatened legal action by sending a picture of a medical certificate unrelated to Mr. Choi.
In the end, Mr. A was handed over to trial on charges of retaliatory injury, confinement, assault, and intimidation under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. However, Mr. A did not admit most of the charges against Mr. Choi in court. He claimed, “I have never imprisoned Mr. Choi, injured Mr. Choi, or assaulted him in retaliation.”
The court found him guilty of all charges and sentenced him to five years in prison. The first trial said, “Mr. Choi couldn’t lead a proper daily life because he thought that Mr. A’s abusive language and violence might continue to repeat in a situation where he could not overcome Mr. A’s persistent bullying and resigned even if he wanted to. It seems that it has reached a state where there is none.”
At the same time, “Mr. A has so far denied the crime of confinement, injury, and assault for the purpose of retaliation during the crime, and has not shown serious reflection on his mistakes, and has not received forgiveness from his bereaved family.” “Severe punishment is inevitable.” He explained the reason for the sentencing.
Person A appealed against the judgment. Even at the appeal trial, he repeated his previous claim, saying, “I had a fight with Mr. Choi in the bathroom, but it was not for the purpose of retaliation to Mr. Choi’s accusation, but it was only to the extent of grabbing him by the collar, and I never hurt Mr. Choi.”
The second trial also did not accept Mr. A’s claim and dismissed the appeal. The second trial judge said, “Mr. A is still maintaining an unconvincing argument, and the responsibility for reaching the current situation is ‘the victim who made a false statement in his lifetime’, and ‘the media believes in the false claim and exaggerates the facts. They are only blaming others, such as ‘blame’ and ‘blame the police for conducting a fabricated investigation pushed by public opinion’.”
He added, “Although Mr. A has submitted statements of reflection several times, it is difficult to evaluate that he is doing sincere reflection as long as he maintains an attitude of seeking only self-justification.” I did not apologize,” he said. Mr. A appealed against the judgment of the second trial, but the Supreme Court confirmed the verdict of the lower court.