Jung Joon-young, Choi Jong-hoon appeal prison sentences; Kang Ji-hwan avoids jail term
K-pop stars Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon, former leader of band FT Island, have filed appeals to contest their prison sentences after they were found guilty of sexual crimes.
The Seoul Central District Court convicted the two recently and sentenced Jung Joon-young to six years in prison and Choi Jong-hoon to five years behind bars.
The two singers were found guilty of quasirape for sexually assaulting women in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province in January 2016 followed by another incident in Daegu in March 2016. Jung Joon Young was also convicted of distributing illegally filmed sex videos on KakaoTalk chat rooms in 2015.
Quasi-rape, under Article 299 of Korea’s Act On Special Cases Concerning The Punishment, Etc. of Sexual Crimes, is committed when “a person who has sexual intercourse with another or commits an indecent act on another by taking advantage of the other’s condition of unconsciousness or inability to resist.”
In finding the two stars guilty of quasirape, the jury explained that “the defendants acted in collusion to rape the victims who were unable to resist. Moreover, the victims would suffer from intense pain after learning about this incident. However, they both have never been charged with crimes of the same kind and also acknowledged their faults,” according to Osen.
Meanwhile, Korean actor Kang Ji-hwan was convicted of quasirape and quasi-indecent act by compulsion on two women, who are employees of a subcontracting company, at his home in Gwangju, South Korea on July 9.
But he avoided going to prison as the court sentenced him to two years and six months in prison suspended for three years. He was also ordered to do 120 hours of community service and 40 hours of participating in lectures about sexual violence.
“Considering that the victims were unable to respond immediately and got out of bed after being sexually harassed, the victims indeed fell asleep in a drunken state. In the course of the trial, the victims claimed that they did not want to punish the accused, but due to the nature of the sexual abuse, it is difficult to say that the victims have completely recovered from this trauma. The accused should repent until the victims’ wounds have healed,” the jury explained, reported JTBC Plus.
The jury added that “we hope in the future, the defendant will try to live a good way and always bear in mind that if it hadn’t been for women, mankind couldn’t have existed.”