[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Eun-young] A woman in her 50s who verbally abused and assaulted a campaign worker during the election campaign of then Future United Party lawmaker Kim Jin-tae ahead of the April 15 general election has been sentenced to a fine.
On the 25th, the Criminal Division 2 of Chuncheon District Court (Presiding Judge Jin Won-du) announced that A (50), who was indicted for violating the Public Official Election Act, was sentenced to a fine of 2.5 million won.
A was brought to trial on charges of assaulting a campaign worker for Kim Jin-tae, the Future United Party candidate, in front of a restaurant in Chuncheon around 12:30 p.m. on April 14.
While cleaning in front of the restaurant, A had a verbal altercation when a campaign worker for Kim Jin-tae, candidate number 2 for the 21st National Assembly election, greeted her by saying, "Hello, please support candidate number 2, Kim Jin-tae," and she responded, "Get lost."
When another campaign worker filmed the scene, A approached holding a broom and repeatedly grabbed, shook, and dragged the campaign worker by the collar while saying things like, "Why are you filming? I was ruined because of Kim Jin-tae." She was brought to trial on these charges.
During the trial, A claimed that her act of grabbing and pulling the shoulder was a legitimate action to take the campaign worker, who was filming her without permission, to the police station, but the court did not accept this argument.
The court stated that A went beyond simply requesting the filming to stop and responded with abusive and harsh language, which escalated the verbal altercation into physical assault.
Regarding sentencing, the court explained, "Despite having received a fine last year for special threats, she committed the crime again and did not receive forgiveness from the victim," while also considering that "the crime occurred during a protest against unauthorized filming and the degree of assault was not very severe."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
