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| Activists uphold banners calling for justice for attempted rape victim Choi Mal-ja in this May 6, 2020 file photo. With the help of her legal team, Choi submitted documents to the Busan District Court that day, requesting the court review the 1965 ruling which denied her self-defense claim. The court dismissed it, citing a lack of fresh evidence. Courtesy of Korea Women's Hotline |
Attempted rape victim Choi Mal-ja claims she was wrongfully convicted six decades ago, and wants justice now
By Kang Hyun-kyung
During her entire life, Choi Mal-ja, 75, said there were two things she was resolute on achieving before her death: a college education and challenging the judiciary to reverse a Busan District Court ruling in 1965 which denied her self-defense claim in a rape attempt case and made her a criminal for seriously injuring a then 21-year-old man who sexually assaulted her.
She claimed that she was wrongfully convicted due to the prosecution's and local court's refusal to accept the self-defense argument, saying she will never be able to rest in peace, unless she restores her innocence.
Her first wish was realized in 2019 when she eventually earned her college degree six-and-a-half years after she began coursework at the Korea National Open University.
But her wish to have justice back remains incomplete. A higher court has yet to commence a review of her appeal of the 1965 ruling, following a district court's dismissal of it, citing a lack of fresh evidence.
In January, 1965, Choi was found guilty of having injured the man who had attempted to rape her and tried to kiss her in May 1964. While resisting his violent sexual assault, the then-18-year-old girl bit 1.5-centimeters of his tongue off when he put it into her mouth. Her plea of self-defense was denied. She was sentenced to a 10-month jail term, suspended for two years.
There were human rights violations by the investigators. She was detained for six months without a trial. The unnamed prosecutor who investigated her case called her "a bitch" who severely injured a young healthy man and caused him to live the rest of his life with a disability. He ― and later the judge who oversaw her case ― even solicited her to get married to the man who tried to rape her.
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| Choi speaks during an online conference held at Korea Women's Hotline in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of Korea Women's Hotline |
"I was only 18 when that happened. When I was taken to the prosecution for investigation, I didn't even know what a victim and an offender meant," she said during a Zoom conference at the Korea Women's Hotline in Seoul, Friday. "But now I am no longer that innocent little girl who was scared and couldn't fully express myself. I feel like I'm a tiger now and an avid, ferocious watcher of how the court will react to my appeal to review the case."
The online conference was organized by a group of women's rights activists helping Choi to put pressure on the Busan High Court to start reviewing her appeal of the lower court's ruling in January that denied her request to review the 1965 ruling.
Choi said all her life she has lived with the single-minded goal that she wants justice over what happened. "I know all people are treated equally and any kinds of injustices are not allowed in this country. But I didn't benefit from equality and justice, so now I want justice," she said.
She said her life was torn apart after the rape attempt case and following the court's ruling against her. "When I was released after the ruling and came back home to my rural village in the southeastern county of Gimhae, I heard my neighbors gossiping about me. All during my life, I have lived with stereotyping," she said.
Poorly educated and having no money to hire a lawyer to represent her, she went on to say she couldn't think of a legal fight to right the wrong regarding the 1965 ruling.
Education has enlightened her, motivating her to speak up and take legal action with the support of human rights activists. While taking a college course at Korea National Open University and hanging out with her classmates, most of whom are decades her junior, she said her awareness of issues like equality and justice was heightened.
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| Last year, Choi requested the district court to review the 1965 ruling. This sign held by an activist reads, "A request for the review of the past ruling on sexual assault victim's self-defense." Courtesy of Korea Women's Hotline |
She became determined to take legal action against the 1965 ruling in 2018 when the nation was caught up in a series of #MeToo revelations.
Watching the courageous women who spoke up about their past sufferings, Choi said she felt she had to be part of the movement. She disclosed what happened to her in the 1960s during a private conversation with her classmate, Yoon Hyang-hee, and asked Yoon if she could help her.
Before the conversation, Yoon said she didn't know about the 1964 rape attempt case and initially didn't believe what Choi had said. "I was wondering how such a thing could have happened in this country. After returning home, I did some research about the case and realized that what she had said was all true," Yoon said during a Zoom conference. "I learned the victim of a rape attempt received a jail term, as her claim of self-defense was not recognized. But the man who attempted to rape her managed to avoid punishment. This was insane."
Despite Choi's undeserved suffering, Yoon said she knew it would be a daunting job to reverse the decades-old ruling because gathering new evidence to back Choi's self-defense claim would be a tough challenge. "But I decided to help her out, because I was convinced that the 1965 ruling was not based on the facts," she said.
With her help, Choi dialed the toll-free number of Korea Women's Hotline in Seoul in December 2018 to get their help. Upon their request, she traveled to Seoul to meet the advocates in person to discuss what to do to proceed to reverse the 1965 ruling.
A team of lawyers was formed to help Choi in her belated legal fight against the judiciary.
On May 8 last year, 56 years after Choi fell victim to the rape attempt in her hometown of Gimhae, she took her case to the Busan District Court, asking them to review the 1965 ruling and clear her of the conviction in the case.
Dubbed "#MeToo disclosure 56 years after her suffering" her legal action made news.
In January this year, nine months after her legal team's submission of the related documents, the local court rejected Choi's claim.
The court said there was no fresh evidence that could support Choi's self-defense claim, which was necessary to start a review of the decades-old case.
In 1965, the ruling said, she was assisted by an attorney when she stood trial and pleaded not guilty to the charges claiming that what she did was in self-defense but that she didn't claim human rights violations by the prosecutor at that time.
Back then, sexual injustice and discrimination based on gender were preponderant in Korean society and the investigation and ruling in the case appear to have been made against this backdrop, thus this court found it difficult to conclude that the ruling that was made over a half century ago was flawed in light of today's standards, it said.
Choi immediately appealed to the high court in February. The higher court has yet to commence assessing her appeal.
Choi said she will fight until the day she dies to right the wrong, hoping her work can help the nation achieve sexual justice.
"I know there are still victims of sexual violence who do not have the courage to speak up about their suffering. I want to tell them they are not alone and they can make a difference only when they share their stories and fight together, along with other victims and women's rights campaigners, to establish sexual justice in this country," she said.
