Prosecution Indicts Jo Joo-bin in Custody... Excludes Crime Syndicate Organization Charges

On the morning of the 25th of last month, Jo Joo-bin is coming out of Jongno Police Station in Seoul to be transferred to the prosecution. / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporters Seokjin Choi and Hyungmin Kim] The prosecution indicted Jo Joo-bin (24, in custody), the operator of the 'Baksa Room,' on the 13th.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Digital Sex Crime Special Investigation Task Force (led by Chief Prosecutor Hyunjung Yoo) indicted Jo on charges including production and distribution of child and youth pornography under the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse, forcible molestation, coercion of child prostitution, attempted rape and similar sexual acts against children and juveniles, filming using a camera under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, forcible molestation, and violation of the Personal Information Protection Act.

The prosecution requested seizure preservation on 15 virtual currency wallets owned by Jo, as well as securities deposits and stocks, and requested confiscation preservation on seized cash amounting to 130 million KRW.

Additionally, the prosecution filed non-custodial indictments against accomplices Kang Mo (24, social service worker) and Lee Mo (16, student), who were already in custody and on trial, on the same charges as Jo.

Jo is accused of threatening 25 female victims, including children and juveniles, from May last year to February this year, to film sexually exploitative videos and selling and distributing them through the Telegram 'Baksa Room.' Among the confirmed victims, 8 were children and juveniles, and 17 were adults.

He is also accused of threatening victim A (15) in October last year by threatening to distribute nude videos, then ordering an accomplice to attempt sexual assault and similar sexual acts.

Furthermore, from September last year to February this year, he is charged with forcing five victims to film promotional videos for the Baksa Room, and from February to December last year, threatening three victims by threatening to distribute nude photos.

Charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act were applied for receiving personal information of female victims and their families from two individuals, including Kang, who were working as public service workers.

Earlier, the police transferred Jo to the prosecution with 12 charges including production of obscene materials under the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles from Sexual Abuse, similar sexual acts, rape, forcible molestation, threats, fraud, coercion, attempted coercion, conspiracy to murder, filming using a camera under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, violations of the Child Welfare Act and the Personal Information Protection Act.

At that time, the police sent the conspiracy to murder charge, in which Jo and Kang allegedly conspired to kill a young girl, with a recommendation not to prosecute, and the prosecution also did not include the conspiracy to murder charge in Jo's indictment.

The charge of organizing a criminal group, which attracted the most attention, has not yet been finalized in legal review or related investigations, so it was excluded from the indictment for now.

However, the prosecution plans to decide on additional indictments after securing further testimonies and evidence to apply the charge of organizing a criminal group through supplementary investigations. Investigations will also continue into other crimes such as concealment of criminal proceeds.

Among the three accomplices identified as co-operators of the Baksa Room with Jo, Kang Mo (19), nicknamed ‘Butta,’ who is accused of managing members and delivering profits to Jo, is under police custody, and Lee Mo (20), nicknamed ‘Igya,’ a private first class accused of distributing and promoting sexually exploitative videos hundreds of times, is under military prosecution custody. The remaining accomplice, nicknamed ‘Samagwi,’ has not yet been apprehended.

A prosecution official stated, “We support the ‘right to be forgotten’ by deleting victim videos detected through an illegal filming detection system and assisting with name changes and resident registration number changes upon victims’ requests. Based on the issues identified in this investigation, we have proposed legal amendments to expand the disclosure of sex offenders’ identities and to introduce an emergency deletion system for child sexual exploitation materials.”

He added, “We hope this investigation will provide youth with the wisdom to discern the dark intentions hidden behind the anonymity of social network services (SNS), raise awareness of ‘sexual exploitation video crimes’ not only among investigative agencies but throughout society, and serve as an opportunity to devise fundamental countermeasures.”

Meanwhile, the court receiving Jo’s case plans to assign the trial before the general election. Although case assignments are usually done randomly through electronic allocation, considering the importance of the case, it is expected to be assigned to one of the four panels at the Seoul Central District Court that specialize in sex crime cases.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.