A South Korean woman has been acquitted after a court revisited her decades-old conviction for biting off the tongue of a man during an alleged sexual attack.
Choi Mal-ja was 18 when she was convicted of grievous bodily harm and sentenced to 10 months in jail. Her aggressor, who was 21, received a lighter sentence of six months.
After a years-long campaign to clear her name, a retrial began in the southern city of Busan in July. In its first hearing, prosecutors apologized to her and, in an unusual move, asked the court to quash the conviction.
'I could not let this case go unanswered... I [wanted] to stand up for other victims who share the same fate as mine,' Ms. Choi stated after the acquittal.
The incident in question happened in 1982, when the attacker pinned Ms. Choi to the ground, and she managed to escape by biting off about 1.5cm of his tongue. Despite her act being a means of self-defense, the court at the time deemed her response as exceeding 'reasonable bounds.'
Ms. Choi, now 79, expressed gratitude towards her supporters and criticized the authorities who mishandled her case, stating that her experience transformed her from victim to accused.
Inspired by the #MeToo movement, Ms. Choi spent two years gathering evidence for a retrial, facing several rejections from lower courts. Eventually, her efforts paid off when the Supreme Court agreed to reopen her case in December 2024.
Upon her acquittal, Ms. Choi's lawyer described the original conviction as a 'misjudgement due to gender bias and societal perceptions.'
The Korea Women's Hotline celebrated the verdict as a significant step towards justice for victims of sexual violence and a message encouraging victims to speak out.
Ms. Choi plans to file a civil lawsuit against the state for compensation and aims to be a voice for others who faced similar injustices.
