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| Four minors charged over the death of a middle school student leave Namdong Police Station in Incheon to attend a court review over their arrest warrant in this November photo. / Yonhap |
By Lee Suh-yoon
Four teenagers charged with assaulting a middle school student ― leading him to jump off a high-rise apartment in Incheon to escape their bullying ― were given jail terms, Tuesday.
The Incheon District Court handed down maximum jail terms ranging from three to seven years to the four minors ― three boys and one girl between the ages of 14 and 16. Being minors, the sentence included the possibility of conditional early release, which would reduce the jail terms by 18 months to three years, according to the relevant law.
By law, the longest jail term that can be given to underage offenders is 10 years.
Before his death, the victim, a 14-year-old boy born to a Korean father and Russian mother, was tortured for 80 minutes on the roof of a 15-floor apartment building last November. The four assaulted and spat on him and forced him to partly undress, according to collected evidence.
"The victim was not trying to commit suicide as a way to escape the assault; he was trying to escape by jumping onto a ventilator attached to the building three meters below the apartment rooftop. During this life-threatening escape, he lost his balance and fell," the judge panel said.
The court concluded the perpetrators could have expected the victim's death.
"The victim was gripped with intense fear and humiliation in the long and cruel treatment by his attackers. He had no other options when he fell," the verdict read. "The offenders could foresee the victim would choose an extreme way to escape and possibly die in the process."
The defendants said they attacked the boy for making a degrading comment about the father of one of them. They said he also told them he preferred playing computer games to spending time with them.
