South Korean woman who bit off attacker’s tongue acquitted after 61 years

A woman was acquitted from South Korea after the court of consideration re -considered her conviction for decades for biting a man’s tongue during an alleged sexual attack.

Choi Mal-Ja was eighteen years old when she was convicted of serious physical harm and was sentenced to 10 months in prison. Her custom, who was 21 years old, received a six -month lighter penalty.

After a campaign that lasted for years to liquidate its name, the re -trial began in the southern city of Busan in July. In the first hearing, The prosecutors apologized In an extraordinary step, the court asked the conviction to cancel.

“I couldn’t leave this issue, not answered … I [wanted] “To defend the other victims who share the same destiny,” said Ms. Choi after the innocence.

When she was a teenager at the time, the accident changed her fate with “rotation [me] From a victim to a defendant.

“People have warned me about me that it would be like throwing eggs on a rock, but I couldn’t leave this issue.”

She thanked her supporters, and called on those in power “offended their authority to trample the weak and manipulate the law.”

The MS Choi case was martyred in the legal textbooks in South Korea as a classic example of a court of failure to recognize self -defense during sexual violence.

According to the court records, the attacker had suspended Mrs. Choi somewhere in the southern town of Jamehi. I just managed to free after biting about 1.5 cm (0.59 inches) from his tongue.

The man was constantly demanding compensation for his injury and even stormed the house of Mrs. Choi with a knife at once, according to the South Korean media.

In one of the most controversial South Korea rulings on sexual violence, the man was sentenced to six months in prison – suspended for two years – on charges of assaulting others’ property. He has never been charged with trying to rape.

Mrs. Choi received the harsh ruling to cause him serious physical harm, as the court said at that time that her actions exceeded the “reasonable limits” of self -defense.

She was detained for six months during the investigation, and was later given a 10 -month prison sentence, which was suspended for two years.

In 2018, it is inspired by the #Metoo Global movement, which also has Hold in South KoreaMrs. Choi arrived at the Da`wah groups and spent about two years collecting evidence before submitting a petition for a re -trial.

Her way to expression was difficult. The minimum courts refused to seek her saying that there is no evidence that supports its allegations of self -defense.

Mrs. Choi fought, saying that she did not want to see other victims of sexual violence going through what she did. “[They] “You should not bear the pain alone,” she told Korea Herld in a previous interview.

Finally, in December 2024, the Supreme Court granted its request to reopen the case.

Outside the stadium on Wednesday, both Mrs. Choi and her supporters were all smiling, as some were carrying banners who said: “Choi Mal-Ja did so!” And “Choi Mal-Ja succeeded”.

Mrs. Choi’s lawyer, Kim Soo Jong, described the previous conviction as “bad ruling due to gender bias and societal perceptions.”

Ms. Kim said: “Thanks to the Battle of Choi Mal-Ja, which is unavoidable without surrendering, the prosecution and the judiciary had the opportunity to correct this error today.”

She added that Mrs. Choi was planning to file a civil lawsuit against the state to request compensation.

The hotline of Korean women, one of the groups that Mrs. Choi supported in her campaign, believes that Wednesday will pave the way for justice to victims of sexual violence.

“Go ahead, the defensive actions of women will be understood as legitimate. I expect this to mean that less than women will face unfair suffering,” says Song Ran Hu, who leads the group.

“At least, a message will be sent to the victims. Even if the process that you are now going through is painful and unusual, it says:” Your voice is important. “

There were at least two other cases in South Korea, women who were bound by the tongues of sexual attackers – one in 1988 in Andog, and another in 2020 in Busan. In both cases, the courts realized what women did as legal actions for self -defense, and ruled in their favor.