Prosecutors ask for acquittal of woman convicted of biting off attacker's tongue
South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday asked the court to acquit a 78-year-old woman in her retrial, 60 years after she was convicted for biting off the tongue of a man who tried to rape her.
Admitting to wrongful prosecution, the prosecutors offered an official apology to Choi Mal-ja.
In 1964, then 18-year-old Choi was subject to sexual attack by a 21-year-old man, surnamed Noh, and she bit off his tongue while defending herself. She was criminally charged and the Busan District Court sentenced her to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, for aggravated bodily injury; her claim of self-defense was dismissed.
Her attacker, while not convicted of a sex crime, received six months in prison, suspended for one year, for trespassing and threat with a weapon.
"The prosecution has concluded that the actions (by Choi) are justifiable as a sex crime victim, and that they are not illegal," the prosecution said at the hearing for the retrial held at the Busan District Court, demanding the court declare Choi innocent.
The prosecutors said their predecessors failed to protect Choi as a victim from not only the crime, but also from the social prejudice and secondary damage inflicted after she was convicted.
The prosecution in the past case had requested a prison term for Choi in October of 1964, before the ruling the following year.
"The prosecution in the past case failed to do its duty and went the wrong way. As a result, (the prosecution in the past) inflicted unimaginable pain and suffering on Choi Mal-ja. For this, we apologize," the prosecution said at the hearing.
Choi Mal-ja's case is considered among the worst miscarriages of justice involving a sex crime in Korea, where her attempt to protect herself was wrongfully labeled an act of brutality.
In the trial, she was accused by the prosecutors of crippling the man — despite him not sustaining a permanent disability — and the court allegedly attempted to persuade her to marry her attacker. The litigation and settlement with Noh for the injuries led to a substantial financial burden on the family, and Noh continued to harass her family even throughout the trials.
She was also subject to the social stigma of having a criminal record.
In 2020, Choi requested a retrial in the Busan court, which was rejected the following year. The court said, "There is no clear evidence to prove her innocence, and we cannot overrule a verdict just because the social, cultural backgrounds have changed."
But Choi continued to pursue the case, appealing to the Supreme Court in May of 2023.
In June that year, in an interview with The Korea Herald, she said, "The court made me — the victim — the attacker. I knew nothing about the law, but I knew that I had been wronged."
South Korea's highest court sided with her in December, ordering the case to be redeliberated.
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