Three Men in Their 20s Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison for Kidnapping, Assault, and Robbery of Middle School Classmate

A group of men in their 20s who kidnapped, assaulted, and robbed a middle school classmate have been sentenced to four years in prison.

According to the legal community on the 7th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Cheon Dae-yeop) upheld the original sentence of four years imprisonment for Kim (20), who was indicted on charges including robbery and injury.

Supreme Court, Seocho-dong, Seoul.

Kim was tried on charges of assault, confinement, and robbery against C (20), a middle school classmate of the twin brothers A (20) and B (20), whom he met at a juvenile detention center.

On August 29 last year, around 11:40 p.m., the three lured C to a hotel in Dongnae-gu, Busan, then repeatedly punched his face and other areas dozens of times and confined him. It was investigated that A lured C by saying, "I'll pay your taxi fare, come here. I'm going to the military next week, so I want to see your face once."

Kim and B also intimidated C by showing him their full-body tattoos while wearing only underwear. Having his phone confiscated by them, C was too frightened to resist at all. After obtaining the password of A's phone, the three transferred 226,666 won from C's KakaoBank account and made small payments totaling about 999,400 won, gaining a total financial benefit of approximately 1,226,066 won.

They are also charged with jointly forcing C, who did not have a license, to ride a motorcycle by threatening him, saying, "You know unlicensed driving always lands you in jail. If you report us, you'll go to prison," to prevent him from reporting to the police.

The first trial sentenced all three to four years in prison each.

The court stated, "The nature of the crimes committed by the defendants is very serious," and "The victim is believed to have suffered considerable physical and mental distress due to this incident."

It added, "Defendants B and C showed an attitude during the investigation that seemed to shift responsibility onto Kim, and do not appear to have shown sincere remorse or reflection stemming from an apology to the victim."

The three appealed, but the second trial court's judgment was the same.

The Supreme Court also found no issues with the original ruling. B and C withdrew their appeals during the Supreme Court trial, so the second trial's decision was finalized as is.

The court dismissed Kim's appeal, stating, "There is no error in the original court's judgment that violates the rules of logic and experience, exceeds the limits of free evaluation of evidence, or misinterprets the law regarding the establishment of robbery and injury charges affecting the verdict."