“I won’t give you a place to worship”… Church member who disrupted worship amidst factional fight acquits on appeal

Indicted on charges of having church members occupy the door and disrupting worship
The appellate court said, “The church members came forward voluntarily.” Unlike the first trial, the verdict was ‘not guilty’.

A man in his 60s who blocked the church door and disrupted a fellow pastor's worship service due to a conflict between church members was found not guilty on appeal.

According to the legal community on the 24th, the 4-1st Criminal Division of the Incheon District Court recently declared Mr. A not guilty at the appeal trial on charges of obstruction of business, overturning the first trial judgment that sentenced him to one year in prison and three years probation.

In 2021, Mr. A was sent to trial on charges of interfering with the work of fellow pastor B by having church members block the main entrance to the church and sending a statement saying, “I will not give up the chapel.”

The incident started with a dispute within the church. Due to the dispute, Mr. A received a provisional injunction from the court to suspend the execution of his duties, and Mr. B was decided to act as an agent.

Afterwards, the church members divided into factions that followed Mr. A and Mr. B, respectively, and began to fight, and as the conflict intensified, it was confirmed that it even spread to the point of blocking the church chapel.

However, Mr. A denied the charges, saying, “I never ordered anyone to block Mr. B’s entry or issue a statement,” and added, “If Mr. B had tried to enter alone without accompanying church members, I would have allowed him to enter.”

In response, the first trial court sentenced Mr. A to a suspended prison sentence. The first trial court ruled, "Even if the victim entered the church building alone in a situation where church members were in conflict, it was not a situation in which worship could be properly conducted. The defendant did not answer the victim's phone call to hand over work, and did not stop the church members' actions. Even if only implicitly, he supported the obstruction of business."

However, the appellate court acknowledged some of Mr. A's claims and declared him not guilty based on the court's provisional injunction decision.

The appellate court explained, “The previous injunction decision only suspended the defendant from his duties and appointed the victim as his proxy, but did not impose an obligation to cooperate in the handover. Looking at the submitted on-site video, it appears that the church members blocked the victim’s church members from entering, but did not block the victim.”

“The church members stated that the defendant did not instruct them to write the statement and wrote it voluntarily,” the ruling continued. “Even if he did order the statement to be written, it cannot be considered an exercise of power to the extent of interfering with business.”

Attorney Kim In-won of Daeryun Law Firm, who represented Mr. A in the appeals court, explained, “For a statement to be recognized as an obstruction of business, there must be actual acts of pressure, such as the mobilization of a significant number of people, continuous and organized action, physical occupation, or obstruction of traffic,” and explained, “We were found not guilty by emphasizing that Mr. A was not involved in writing the statement and that he was only expressing a simple religious resolution and that no act of pressure occurred.”

Reporter Park Chae-ryeong chae@kyeonggi.com

[View full article]
“I won't give you the chapel”… Church member who disrupted worship amidst factional fight acquits on appeal (link)