Court to Deliver Appeal Verdict Today on Singers Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon's 'Group Sexual Assault' Charges... Possible Postponement

Submission of Request for Change of Date Yesterday

On March 14 last year, singer Jung Joon-young, who is accused of illegally filming and distributing sexual intercourse videos, arrived at the Metropolitan Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and answered questions from the press. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The court's second trial verdict for singers Jung Joon-young (31) and Choi Jong-hoon (30), who were sentenced to prison in the first trial for charges including the gang rape of intoxicated women, will be delivered on the 7th.

The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 12 (Presiding Judges Yoon Jong-gu, Choi Bong-hee, Jo Chan-young) will hold the appellate trial verdict session at 2 p.m. that day for Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon, who were indicted for violating the Sexual Violence Punishment Act and other charges.

The day before, the defense attorneys for both men each submitted a request to the court to postpone the verdict date.

It is still unknown whether the court will accept the request to change the date.

As of 8:30 a.m. that day, the verdict date had not been changed in the electronic system. However, there remains a possibility that the court will accept the request to postpone the verdict during the trial starting at 2 p.m.

A current presiding judge, Mr. A, said, "In criminal trials, sometimes the decision to change the date is made based on the reasons stated in the request form, but sometimes the court listens to the reasons for the request in court and then decides. In this case, since the request to change the date was made just one day before the verdict, there is a possibility that the court will accept the request in court and reschedule the verdict, or it may reject it and proceed with the verdict as planned."

Both men were arrested and indicted on charges of gang raping intoxicated women with members of group chat rooms on KakaoTalk in January 2016 in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, and in March in Daegu.

Jung Joon-young is also accused of distributing illegal recordings 11 times by secretly filming and sending videos after revealing sexual relations with women in a KakaoTalk chat room involving celebrities at the end of 2015.

Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon were sentenced to six years and five years in prison respectively in the first trial on November 29 last year.

At that time, the first trial court stated, "It can be recognized that they jointly raped a woman who was unable to resist," and "The crime is serious and severe, so harsh punishment is inevitable."

They have denied some charges in the appeal trial as consensual sexual relations, continuing their defense from the first trial.

Earlier, at the sentencing hearing held on the 9th of last month, the prosecution requested seven years in prison for Jung Joon-young and five years for Choi Jong-hoon, the same as the original sentence.

The verdict for Kwon, the older brother of a famous singer involved in the crime, and others will also be delivered on the same day. They were sentenced in the first trial to prison terms ranging from eight months with two years probation to four years in prison.

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