The Navy captain, who was indicted for sexually assaulting a female officer one by one, but was acquitted in the second trial, was re-examined by the Supreme Court in the second trial.
The lower court found that the victim’s statement was not credible and acquitted the victim, but the Supreme Court found that there were circumstances to acknowledge the credibility of the victim’s statement regarding the perpetrator’s actions.
On the 31st, the first division of the Supreme Court (Chief Justice Park Jeong-hwa) returned the case to the Higher Military Court, overturning the original judgment of acquittal of a naval officer (then captain) A, who was handed over to trial on charges of rape and murder of soldiers, etc.
Mr. A and another field-level officer (then the gunnery commander at the time), Mr. B, were handed over to trial on charges such as raping a new officer who had just been commissioned as a lieutenant.
Mr. B, who was the direct supervisor of the victim officer, is accused of forcibly molesting the victim 10 times and raping him twice using his position from September to November 2010.
At that time, the victim officer, who had just been commissioned as a lieutenant, confessed that he was a sexual minority in a personal interview with his direct superior, Mr. B. It is known that Mr. B sexually assaulted the victim again.
Person A, who was the captain at the time, was handed over to trial on charges of rape in December 2010 using the fact that the victim officer underwent an abortion after being pregnant by Mr. B.
The Naval Headquarters Ordinary Military Court in charge of the first trial sentenced A to 8 years in prison and B to 10 years in prison. However, the Higher Military Court, which sought the second trial, overturned the original trial and acquitted both A and B in November 2018.
At the time, the High Military Court judge said, “Even if the victim does not believe that the victim will intentionally make false statements, it is difficult to rule out the possibility that the memory may have been altered or exaggerated after 7 years. Therefore, the crime of rape cannot be established.”
Afterwards, the military prosecutor’s office appealed against the judgment of the second trial, and the case was transferred to the Supreme Court.
The issue was whether or not the victim’s statement was credible. In addition, it explained, “The trial court’s judgment of rejecting all of the statements based on some circumstances that raises doubts about the credibility of the victim’s statements was wrong.”
The sentencing of the Supreme Court’s appeal against Mr. B, who was also handed over to trial, is also scheduled for the same day. The 3rd division of the Supreme Court (Chief Justice Kim Jae-hyung) is scheduled to make a judgment on Mr. B this morning.
Victims’ officers and women’s and civic groups have held several press conferences to urge a verdict of guilt.
The ‘Joint Countermeasures Committee for Sexual Minority Sexual Violence Cases by Naval Officers’ (Council for Sexual Minority Violence Cases), a gathering of 10 organizations including the Korea Sexual Violence Counseling Center and the Military Human Rights Center, is scheduled to hold a press conference on the Supreme Court’s verdict in front of the back gate of the Supreme Court at 12:00 pm on the same day.
(Seoul = News 1)
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