“Claimed 'Investigation Assistance' but Court Did Not Accept
Expert: 'Private Sanctions Are Crimes Disguised as Revenge'”
A YouTuber who reported a drug criminal and live-streamed the arrest process was sentenced guilty. Cases of YouTubers who have taken private punitive actions under the banner of ‘justice’ and are facing legal sanctions are increasing.
According to the legal community on the 24th, Judge Kim Seon-beom of Criminal Division 7 at the Seoul Northern District Court sentenced former YouTuber A to 6 months in prison with a 2-year probation and 120 hours of community service on the 13th for violating the Narcotics Control Act.
He was charged with impersonating a 28-year-old woman on a chat app last year to lure drug offenders by posting a message saying, "I want to take ×××" (a slang term for methamphetamine). The Narcotics Control Act prohibits providing or presenting information related to drug sales or transactions.
A claimed in court that the act was a justifiable act without illegality, intended to assist police investigations, but this was not accepted.
The court ruled, "Even if the purpose was to catch a criminal, impersonating a woman and similar acts are wrongful behaviors that can cause even those without criminal intent to change their minds," and judged the crime as serious.
Earlier, a YouTuber in his 40s who live-streamed the pursuit and arrest of a suspected drunk driver, which led to the death of the pursued individual in September, recently had an arrest warrant requested but it was dismissed. The YouTuber ‘Jeontu Tokki’ and his wife, who disclosed the identities of the perpetrators in the Miryang sexual assault case, were indicted in August and brought to trial.
Experts point out that "private punitive actions are crimes disguised as satisfying revenge." They argue that it is a claim of a kind of arbitrary truth and can easily lead to excessive revenge.
Accordingly, voices are growing for creating systems that can suppress private punitive actions and for improving awareness so that people do not sympathize with excessive private punishments.
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