K-pop stars’ sentences reduce in gang rape case

Two prominent South Korean musicians, Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon, have had their sentences commuted on charges of gang-raping women, including blackmailing several women and young girls into pornographic videos and making them viral.

Both musicians were jailed in November 2019 on multiple sex offenses charges.

Both were accused of taking advantage of their fame and money to make inappropriate videos of several young girls without their consent after drugging them and some times under the pretext of friendship and then blackmailing the girls through these videos.

Both were arrested in early 2019 and prosecuted for several months before being convicted by a court in November.

A Seoul court has sentenced the two musicians to five and six years in prison, respectively, on charges of drugging the girls, gang-raping them, blackmailing them and making their pornographic videos viral.

The court sentenced Jung Jun Young to five years in prison and Choi Jong Hoon to six years in prison.

The court also banned the two from working with the children, ordering them to take 80-hour sexual abuse treatment courses.

The court also disqualified them from any job for 5 years. However, the court now commuted their sentences.

According to the international media, Jung Jun Young and Choi Jong Hoon had reached an agreement with an aggrieved girl, after which their lawyers had applied to the court to reduce their sentences.

The court, while hearing a petition filed by the singers’ lawyers, reduced the sentences of both the singers on May 12.

The court reduced Choe Jong Hoon’s sentence by one year, after which he will spend five years in prison, while Jung Jun Young’s sentence was reduced by two and a half years, after which his sentence is now reduced to two and a half years.

The lawyers of the two singers did not give details of the agreement in the court but they submitted the documents of signing the legal agreement on behalf of the victim to the court after which the court reduced the sentence of the singers.

The singers ‘lawyers are expected to make deals with other affected girls, which could lead to a further reduction in the K-pop musicians’ sentences. However, it is too early to say.

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