Assaulted Police Officer After Refusing Eviction Request at Subway Station
Chuncheon District Court Upholds One-Year Prison Sentence, Suspended for Three Years, on Appeal
A man in his 60s who lay on a bench inside a subway station late at night after subway operations had ended, resisted eviction requests, and even assaulted a police officer was sentenced to a suspended prison term.
On the 12th, Yonhap News reported that the Chuncheon District Court Criminal Division 1 (Chief Judge Shim Hyun-geun) sentenced A (62), who was charged with obstruction of official duties, to one year in prison with a three-year suspension, along with probation and 120 hours of community service, the same as in the first trial.
A was brought to trial on charges of assaulting a police officer who was dispatched after he continued to resist at a subway station in Seoul around midnight on September 30, 2023. At the time, despite requests from station staff to leave, he ignored them and lay on a bench. Eventually, the station staff reported to the police that "the last train was about to end, but a passenger was refusing to leave," and A committed the crime of assaulting the police officer as well.
The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. View of Jamsil Station. Photo by Heo Yeonghan
During the trial, A claimed that "I said I would walk out on my own, but the police officer forcibly laid me down and tried to handcuff me, using excessive force, so I resisted," arguing that his response was justified.
The first trial court, the Yeongwol Branch of the Chuncheon District Court, found him guilty based on the fact that even after the last train had passed through the station, A lay on the bench saying, "I will sleep until the first train runs," and stubbornly questioned, "Why should I leave the station?" The court stated, "A shows no remorse and only offers incomprehensible excuses," but considering that he admitted most of the facts and had no prior record of similar offenses, the court gave him a suspended prison sentence with probation as a final chance to reflect on his wrongdoing and correct his behavior.
A repeated the same claims in the appeal trial, but the appellate court dismissed the appeal, stating, "The original judgment is reasonable, and there are no special changes in circumstances that would affect sentencing since the original verdict."
Meanwhile, subway crimes have been increasing every year. In 2023, a total of 3,516 crimes occurred in the Seoul subway, about 4% more than the 3,378 cases in 2022. The most common type of crime was embezzlement of lost property with 1,408 cases, followed by sex crimes with 1,230 cases.
According to data from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, among crimes committed in the Seoul subway from 2021 to July of last year, the station with the highest number of sex crime incidents was Goseok Terminal Station (141 cases), followed by Sadang (124 cases), Hongdae Ipgu (118 cases), Gangnam (117 cases), Yeouido (37 cases), Sindorim (77 cases), Dangsan (65 cases), Gyodae (44 cases), Dongdaemun History & Culture Park (43 cases), and Hapjeong (40 cases) stations.
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