A member of the Changwon City Council in Gyeongnam, who was brought to trial on charges of assaulting a neighbor following a dispute over parking, has been sentenced to a fine.
On the 24th, the Changwon District Court’s Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Kim Seouk) announced that it had sentenced Councilor A, who was indicted without detention on charges of causing injury, to a fine of 700,000 won.
Councilor A was indicted for pushing resident B, who is in his 40s, with both hands and his right knee and grabbing B’s left wrist during an argument over parking at the rear parking lot of an apartment complex in Jinhae-gu, Changwon, in May last year. As a result, B suffered injuries requiring two weeks of medical treatment.
At the time, B was found to have provoked the assault by saying, "I won't move the car until the police arrive. I will file a complaint and have you arrested for insult," and "A 3 million won fine, go ahead and hit me, try it."
Councilor A argued, "All I did was push the wrist; I did not commit assault," but the court did not accept this claim.
The court ruled that it was difficult to conclude that the injuries requiring two weeks of treatment under the Criminal Act were caused solely by Councilor A’s actions, and therefore found A not guilty of causing injury. However, the court, acting ex officio, applied the charge of assault and found A guilty.
The court explained the sentencing by stating, "We considered that A is a first-time offender, that B played a role in provoking the assault, and that the degree of violence was not severe."
However, the court also stated, "Even after reviewing the photos taken of B’s body at the hospital, no external wounds that would constitute an injury were found, and it is difficult to conclude that an injury was proven. There is also no evidence to support this. Although the Criminal Procedure Act would require a not guilty verdict, since the charge of assault, which falls within the scope of the indictment, has been recognized as guilty, a not guilty verdict is not issued."
It has been reported that Councilor A has filed an appeal against the first-instance verdict.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
