Military officer acquitted again over false report filed after conscript's death at front-line post

A military officer charged with filing a false report — describing a conscript's death as an accidental discharge — has been acquitted on appeal. The soldier had transferred to an Army front-line unit in 2022 and died within a month, following alleged group hazing.

The Chuncheon District Court's Criminal Division 1-1, presided over by Judge Lee Geun-yeong, dismissed the prosecution's appeal Friday and upheld the lower court's not-guilty verdict against the officer, identified only by his surname Min, 26.

Min was on duty as a watch officer on Nov. 28, 2022, when Private Kim Sang-hyeon fatally shot himself at a guard post. Min was indicted on charges of falsely reporting to his battalion commander that "the gun went off when it got caught on a poncho." He acknowledged the charges during the investigation but fully denied them in court.

The appeals court found, unlike the first-instance court, that Min did make the statement during a video conference. However, it determined that the formal military report classifying the incident as an accidental discharge appeared to have been filed independently of Min's remark, and that Min had reported in a panicked state without a full understanding of what had happened.

The court also cited as grounds for acquittal the fact that a senior soldier who had witnessed the scene was present, meaning Min had no reason to intentionally conceal facts that would quickly come to light.

The Military Human Rights Center criticized the ruling immediately after sentencing, according to Yonhap News Agency. The center called it "a verdict in which the court itself took pains to consider the perpetrator's intent" and "a judgment that again interpreted, in the perpetrator's favor, the gaps created by the military's shoddy record-keeping, investigation and reporting systems."

According to the indictment, the late Private Kim enlisted in September 2022 and transferred to the GOP unit in late October of that year. He reportedly became a target of hazing by senior soldiers because his Korean pronunciation was awkward after years of studying in China, and because he was slow to learn unit procedures.

One senior soldier, identified by the surname Song, forced Kim to memorize a notebook containing unit duties, threatening that "if even one particle is wrong, your entire cohort gets called out." Another senior soldier, identified by the surname Kim, called Private Kim during his guard shift on the evening of his death and pressured him, saying, "Come to the barracks and talk. If you say sorry, be prepared for what comes next."

Meanwhile, Min had already received a final sentence of four months in prison on a separate charge of insulting Private Kim. Senior soldier Kim, 24, who also harassed the victim, was sentenced to six months in prison, while another senior soldier, Song, 24, received a six-month suspended sentence with a two-year probation period.

사기라더니…이승기, ‘PD수첩’에 거짓말? “전세금 적정하게 책정해서 문제없다” 카톡 폭로

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