Prosecutors Demand Life Imprisonment for 60-Year-Old Who Killed Psychiatrist

by Kim Yongu

Published 13 Nov.2020 15:11(KST)

Updated 13 Aug.2025 08:50(KST)

On the 12th, at the Busan District Court Seobu Branch sentencing hearing, a 'premeditated crime' was judged to require a heavy sentence

Busan Bukbu Police Station.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] A man in his 60s who stabbed and killed a psychiatrist in Busan with a weapon last August has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

The incident involved a hospitalized patient stabbing a doctor who recommended discharge, resulting in the doctor's death. This case shocked the world as it occurred 1 year and 8 months after the late Professor Im Se-won, a psychiatrist at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, died from a stabbing by a patient in his 30s. (August 5, 2020, online edition)

According to the Busan District Court on the 13th, during the sentencing trial held on the 12th under the Criminal Division 1 of the Western Branch (Chief Judge Yang Min-ho), the prosecution requested life imprisonment for Mr. A, who was charged with murder.

The prosecution stated, "We judged that social isolation is necessary and severe punishment is inevitable, so we requested life imprisonment."

Mr. A was brought to trial on charges of stabbing the director of a psychiatric clinic in Hwamyung-dong, Buk-gu, Busan, who had recommended his discharge, resulting in the director's death on August 5, and then causing a disturbance by pouring flammable liquid on himself.

The prosecution stated that Mr. A had no particular mental illness and that the crime was premeditated, as he went out the day before the incident to purchase the weapon, making a heavy sentence unavoidable.

The sentencing trial for Mr. A will be held on December 3 at the Western Branch of the Busan District Court.