Attempt to Evade Military Service After Assignment as Social Service Agent
Rapper Nafla (real name Choi Nicholas Seok-bae), who was accused of attempting early discharge by pretending to suffer from a 'mental illness' while serving as a social service agent, has been found guilty. Nafla is a singer who gained public popularity after winning the entertainment program 'Show Me the Money 777' aired in September 2018.
On the 1st, the Supreme Court Division 1 (Presiding Justice Seo Kyung-hwan) confirmed the original court ruling on the 12th of last month, sentencing Nafla, who was charged with obstruction of official duties by deception and violation of the Military Service Act, to 1 year and 2 months in prison with a 2-year probation.
Nafla was assigned as a social service agent at Seocho District Office in Seoul in February 2021. He was arrested and indicted on charges of manipulating attendance records and acting as if his depression and panic disorder had worsened, attempting early discharge according to a scenario devised by military service broker Mr. Koo.
At that time, he repeatedly received psychiatric treatment and was prescribed medication for about a year, but it was revealed that he mostly did not take the medication and kept it at home. It was also reported that Kim, a co-CEO of his agency, Yeom, a Seocho District Office official, and Kang, a Seoul Regional Military Manpower Administration official, participated in his crime, and the prosecution also brought them to trial.
In the first trial, Nafla was sentenced to one year in prison. However, in the appellate court, the sentence was reduced to 1 year and 2 months in prison with a 2-year probation, citing reasons such as "he confessed to most of the crimes and showed remorse, and consideration should be given to fairness when simultaneously judging the confirmed drug-related offense (marijuana)."
In continental law criminal codes, when a person is tried for multiple crimes at once, if the crimes are of the same kind (excluding death penalty or life imprisonment), the sentence can be increased up to 1.5 times based on the heaviest sentence. Korean criminal law also basically adopts this principle of increased sentencing.
Both the prosecution and Nafla appealed the second trial verdict, but the Supreme Court dismissed both appeals, stating, "There is no error in the lower court's judgment regarding the establishment of the crime of obstruction of official duties by deception." Other defendants indicted alongside Nafla also had their suspended prison sentences confirmed, and military service broker Mr. Koo’s sentence of 5 years in prison and approximately 1.3 billion KRW confiscation was finalized.
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