A file photo of the Supreme Court office building in Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) – Civic activists have presented a petition to the National Human Rights Commission, claiming that the Supreme Court is damaging the human rights of sexual violence victims by delaying sentences on sexual violence offenders unnecessarily.
“The endless delay in the Supreme Court’s sentencing without specific reason is nothing but infringing the personal rights and the right to pursue happiness of the sexual violence victims,” civic groups said during a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday.
“The Supreme Court should issue sentences instantly and disclose the state of progress of numerous long-term cold cases that still remain pending in the Supreme Court. The National Human Rights Commission should recommend the Supreme Court to come up with measures to prevent such delays,” they added.
In 2010, two navy officers raped a female subordinate who was newly appointed to serve on a naval ship.
In the first trial, the offenders were sentenced 10 years and 8 years imprisonment, respectively, but in the second trial of the High Court for Armed Forces, the ruling was overturned and the charges were dismissed.
At present, the case is still pending at the Supreme Court.
In 2017, there was a case where an offender brought a drunken woman whom he met first at a night club to a motel and committed an attempted rape.
In the first and second trial, the offender was found innocent, and while the case was brought to the Supreme Court in May 2020, it is still pending.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
