Six Army soldiers have appealed against jail sentences for beating their colleague to death in April, lawyers and military officers said Monday.
Last month, a military court in Yongin, south of Seoul, sentenced a 26-year-old sergeant to 45 years behind bars on charges of beating the private first class surnamed Yoon to death. The five other soldiers received sentences ranging from 25 years in jail to a suspended jail term of three years.
In a case that appalled the nation, the 23-year-old Yoon died in April after allegedly being hit in his chest by the accused at their unit while eating snacks. The assault caused a piece of food to obstruct his airway, leading him to die of asphyxiation. His death was also later found to be the result of damage to his skeletal muscle caused by repeated brutal assaults for about a month.
“All six offenders have recently filed an appeal,” said a lawyer for one of the soldiers. “We believe that some of the suspicions have not been fully examined, and the sentence was too heavy for the manslaughter charges.”
While clearing them of murder charges that were sought by the military prosecution, the court has said in a verdict that what they committed “was close to murder,” which deserves a heavy punishment.
“It is an undeniable fact that the soldiers committed wrongdoing but we cannot accept that the military has simply been trying to put all the responsibility on them without taking any due charges,” he noted.
In the high-profile case that drew keen media and public attention and ire, the military prosecution had brought murder charges amid revelations that the victim had long suffered severe assaults and abusive treatment by his colleagues.
Expressing regrets over the lenient ruling, the prosecution has also appealed the court decision in order to press murder charges, according to the Army headquarters.
The detailed schedule for the appellate judgment is yet to be fixed.
The case, which was brought to light belatedly in a media report, is among a series of incidents that have laid bare the chronic problem of bullying in the barracks and a rigid military culture.
In June, an Army sergeant who had been bullied by his comrades went on a shooting spree at a border outpost on the east coast, killing five soldiers and wounding seven others.
All able-bodied South Korean men are subject to compulsory military service for about two years in a country facing North Korea across the heavily fortified border. (Yonhap)
