While the court ruling by a military court is due next Tuesday, the suspects have said the reason for their behavior was "to maintain tighter discipline."Ī total of 16 officers at the unit also faced punishment, with the regiment chief being dismissed from the position and the head of the squadron being suspended for three months. "After checking relevant facts further, the prosecution will review whether to apply additional charges to them," he added.įive of the six soldiers, including two sergeants and a staff sergeant, have been arrested on manslaughter charges, and the remaining private first class on assault charges.
Speaking of the claim, Army spokesman Choi Yong-han told a regular briefing on Friday that the suspects have said they "told Yoon to rub the ointment on the body part by himself after witnessing that he had a bruise there from an assault, while denying any intention to sexually molest him. "A day before the incident, some of the suspects applied ointment to his sexual organ to cause him sexual humiliation and physical pain, which constitutes sexual harassment," Lim Tae-hoon, the chief of the Center for Military Human Rights Korea, said in a press conference on Thursday. The military prosecution's probe also found that the victim, who moved last December to the Army's 28th Division in Yeoncheon, just south of the heavily fortified border with North Korea, had long suffered from frequent assaults and abusive treatment by his fellow soldiers.
The assault caused a piece of food to obstruct his airway, leading him to die of asphyxiation. In April, a 23-year-old Army private first class surnamed Yoon died after being hit in the chest by six of his colleagues at their barracks. The Army said Friday that it will conduct a further probe into fresh allegations that a private first class, who was beaten to death by his comrades, was also sexually molested.