'Late Goo Hara Assault and Hidden Camera Charges' Choi Jong-beom... What is the Supreme Court's Verdict?

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court will hold the final appeal trial of Choi Jongbeom, who was charged with assaulting and threatening the late Goo Hara.

On the 15th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Park Jeonghwa) will deliver a verdict at 10 a.m. in the appeal trial of Choi, who was indicted on charges including filming using a camera under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act, injury, and threats.

Previously, Choi was on trial for causing bruises on Goo's arms and legs during an argument in September 2018 and threatening to distribute a sex video. He was also charged with filming Goo's body in August of the same year and forcing her to kneel and apologize to the then agency representative.

The first and second trials recognized most of Choi's charges of threats and coercion, sentencing him to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 3-year probation and 1 year in prison, respectively. Choi was sentenced to actual imprisonment and detained in court after the second trial.

The key issue is how the Supreme Court will view the illegal filming charge, for which Choi was acquitted in the first and second trials. Both trials accepted Choi's claim that he filmed with Goo's implicit consent and acquitted him of the charge of filming her body.

The bereaved family strongly opposes the ruling, calling it perpetrator-centered thinking. They argue that Goo did not consent at the time of filming and consistently testified that she tried to delete the footage, but could not because it was stored on Choi's phone, thus Choi's charges should be judged guilty.

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