Person in Their 70s Who Told an Assault Witness to "Say You Don't Know" Acquitted on Appeal... Court: "Not Enough to Overpower Free Will"

A person indicted on charges of coercing an assault-case witness to give false testimony was acquitted on appeal.

According to the legal community on the 20th, the Criminal Division 5-1 of the Changwon District Court, in the appellate sentencing hearing of A, a woman in her 70s indicted on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (coerced interview, etc.), on the 26th of last month overturned the original ruling that had imposed a fine of 2 million won and acquitted her.

A was referred to trial on charges of coercing false testimony from C, a witness to an assault incident that occurred between B—with whom she was usually close—and a village resident.

At the time, B had been sued for assault after a scuffle with a resident over the results of a village election. The prosecution viewed that A, worried that witness C would give testimony unfavorable to A, exercised force on C and coerced her to "answer that she doesn't know."

However, A denied the charges, saying she had never threateningly coerced any testimony.

The court of first instance found A guilty and imposed a fine of 2 million won. This was because C had consistently stated, from the investigative agency stage, that "A repeatedly told me, in effect, to state that I didn't know about the assault case, while shouting," and the court judged that this conduct constituted force capable of overpowering a person's free will.

However, the appellate court judged that, rather than A having unilaterally pressured C, they had quarreled while making differing claims about what they had witnessed. This was because, when A made the remark, C and her acquaintances rebuked A, and C described this incident as "having fought." The fact that, after the quarrel with A, C testified to the police as she had witnessed regarding the assault case also served as grounds for the acquittal.

Attorney Song Jae-baek of the law firm Daeryun, who represented A on appeal, explained, "For the crime of coerced interview to be established, the exercise of substantive force sufficient to suppress the victim's free will must be proven," adding, "By closely analyzing the objective circumstances at the time of the incident and C's side's response, and demonstrating that it was a simple quarrel rather than a unilateral coercion, we were able to obtain an acquittal."

Reporter Jung Cheol-wook

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Person in Their 70s Who Told an Assault Witness to "Say You Don't Know" Acquitted on Appeal... Court: "Not Enough to Overpower Free Will" (Go to link)