Military court lax in punishing sex crimes: lawmaker

The military court is too generous in its sentencing of military personnel found guilty of sex crimes, with about 30 percent of cases receiving reduced sentences upon appeal, a lawmaker claimed Wednesday.

According to General Military Court data released to Rep. Song Ki-hun of the Democratic Party of Korea, 1,279 military personnel were tried for sex crimes at the court from 2015 to 2017. 

More than 34.2 percent of the personnel had allegedly violated military criminal law -- committing sexual assaults against fellow soldiers -- while 28.3 percent were cited for violation of the special law on sex crimes. Some 26.6 percent allegedly violated the criminal law, and 9.4 percent of the personnel were cited on the act for protecting children and juveniles against sex offenses, according to the data.

Among the cases, only 11.5 percent resulted in jail terms, while 35.5 percent received suspended sentences and 27.1 percent received fines. The rate of acquittal stood at 5.16 percent, and 1.1 percent of cases were dismissed by the prosecution.

The military court also appeared generous on spycam crimes, or crimes involving the taking of photographs or video without consent, the lawmaker said.

From 2016 to July this year 77 spycam cases went to trial, and the court handed down fines in 90.9 percent of the cases. The average fine was about 3.25 million won ($2,880).

The lawmaker highlighted that 29.2 percent of the 528 appeals resulted in reduced sentences.

In one case, a staff sergeant who distributed photographs of an ex-girlfriend’s body parts and sex videos was sentenced to one year in prison by the general military court. But in the military appeals court, the sentence was reduced to six months in prison, as the court took into consideration the staff sergeant’s “good attitude at the military service.”

“I believe one of the reasons the crime rate of soldiers continues to increase is because of the custom of the upper court delivering reduced sentences,” Rep. Song said.

Earlier this month, Rep. Song proposed a revision bill that would abolish the High Court for Armed Forces and transfer the appeals to regional courts.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)