"A Group Attempted Kidnapping After Seeing 'Looks Like This Kid's Well-Off?' on a High School Friend's Instagram"

A group of men in their 30s who attempted to kidnap a classmate for the purpose of extorting money were sentenced to imprisonment in the appellate court. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Nah Han-ah] A group of men in their 30s who attempted to kidnap a high school classmate to extort money after seeing photos of luxury foreign cars posted on Instagram were sentenced to prison in an appellate court.

According to the legal community on the 1st, the Seoul High Court overturned the original sentence of 2 years and 6 months in prison with 3 years of probation for A (32) and B (37), who were charged with attempted robbery with aggravating circumstances, and sentenced them to 1 year and 6 months in prison, ordering their immediate detention.

A’s high school classmate C (31) frequently posted photos of his luxurious lifestyle, including pictures of his high-end foreign car, a Cadillac, on the social networking service Instagram.

After seeing C’s Instagram, A believed that C was making a large amount of money by operating an illegal gambling site, and together with acquaintance B, planned to kidnap and threaten C to extort money. They also recruited ethnic Korean Chinese from Joseon-jok to assist in the kidnapping and extortion plan.

The group used three vehicles and hired contractors to follow C. When C parked his car in front of a beauty salon in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, and entered the building, they parked around C’s car and waited. After C came out of the salon, they tried to forcibly put him into a car to kidnap him, but C fiercely resisted, and the plan ended in failure.

The first trial court criticized A and B, who led the crime, but considering that they admitted and reflected on their wrongdoing, sentenced them to 2 years and 6 months in prison with 3 years of probation. The other accomplices received suspended sentences.

However, the appellate court’s judgment was different. The second trial court stated, “The defendants planned the crime in advance, divided roles, and even attempted to kidnap the victim at the crime scene, showing very bad criminal nature,” and explained the sentencing by saying, “If the victim had not actively resisted, it is clear that the defendants would have kidnapped him and caused greater harm.” They sentenced the defendants to 1 year and 6 months in prison and ordered their immediate detention.

They also judged that “It is excessively lenient and unfair to sentence probation as in the original trial solely because the defendants have no significant criminal record and show remorse.”

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