Illegal Immigrant Assaults Partner Over Meeting Another Man... Pleads for Leniency Claiming "Promise to Marry"

Card Seized for Cash Withdrawal, Robbery Charges Filed
Court: Method Violent but Considers Settlement

A Chinese illegal immigrant man was sentenced to prison for repeatedly assaulting his girlfriend, including kicking her in the abdomen.

The Jeju District Court's 2nd Criminal Division (Presiding Judge Jin Jae-kyung) sentenced Mr. A (38), who was detained and prosecuted last month on charges of assault and robbery, to two years in prison on the 29th.

On April 9, Mr. A chased a woman who ran out of a multi-family housing corridor in Yeondong, Jeju City, kicked her in the abdomen, and repeatedly struck her face.

He also took the woman's cellphone to prevent her from reporting to the police and threw it on the floor, breaking it.

The victim woman was curled up in fear, lying on the corridor floor, but Mr. A continued the assault without concern.

[Image source provided by Jeju Seobu Police Station]

After assaulting the woman, Mr. A stole her wallet and fled, and he was also charged with robbery for withdrawing about 6 million won in cash using her check card.

Mr. A, who stated that he was dating the victim woman, testified that he committed the crime because he could not control his anger after seeing the woman, who had notified him of their breakup, with another man. He admitted most of the assault charges in court but strongly denied the robbery charge. He claimed that the money in the victim's account was effectively his own. He also pleaded for leniency, saying, "We have already reached an agreement, and we promised to return to China together and get married."

However, the court stated during sentencing, "Although the card used in the crime belongs to another person, the victim was using it at the time, and even if the defendant had given money to the victim in the past and she deposited it into the account, that money cannot be considered the defendant's property now," thereby recognizing the robbery charge.

Furthermore, the court said, "The defendant's method of crime was quite violent, chasing and assaulting the fleeing victim, but the fact that they reached an agreement with the victim is reflected in the sentencing," and sentenced him to two years in prison.

Meanwhile, according to statistics from the Ministry of Justice's Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters, the number of foreign illegal immigrants without proper residence status reached 422,105 as of the end of May. This is a record high following 414,045 in March and 417,852 in April.

The largest number of foreigners currently residing in Korea is Chinese, including ethnic Koreans from China called Joseonjok (610,000), totaling 885,000. They are followed by Vietnamese at 256,000, Thai at 203,000, and Americans at 175,000.

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