A South Korean woman has been acquitted after a court revisited her decades-old conviction for biting off the tongue of a man during an alleged sexual attack.
Choi Mal-ja was 18 when she was convicted of grievous bodily harm and sentenced to ten months in jail. Her aggressor, who was 21, received a lighter sentence of six months.
After a years-long campaign to clear her name, a retrial began in the southern city of Busan in July. In its first hearing, prosecutors apologised to her and, in an unusual move, asked the court to quash the conviction.
I could not let this case go unanswered... I [wanted] to stand up for other victims who share the same fate as mine, Ms Choi said after the acquittal.
As a teenager back then, the incident changed her fate by turning [me] from a victim to an accused.
People around me warned me that it would be like throwing eggs at a rock, but I could not let this case go, said Ms Choi, now 79.
She thanked her supporters and called out those whom she said abused their authority to trample the weak and manipulate the law.
Ms Choi's case has been cited in legal textbooks in South Korea as a classic example of a court failing to recognise self-defence during sexual violence.
According to court records, the attacker had pinned Ms Choi to the ground somewhere in the southern town of Gimhae. She only managed to break free after biting off about 1.5cm (0.59in) of his tongue.
The man continually demanded compensation for his injury and even broke into Ms Choi's home with a knife on one occasion, South Korean media reported.
In one of South Korea's most contentious rulings on sexual violence, the man was given a six-month suspended sentence for trespassing and intimidation. He was never charged for attempted rape.
Ms Choi received the harsher sentence for causing him grievous bodily harm, with the court saying at the time that her actions exceeded the reasonable bounds of self-defence.
She was detained for six months during the investigation and was later given a ten-month sentence, which was suspended for two years.
In 2018, inspired by the global #MeToo movement, Ms Choi reached out to advocacy groups and spent about two years gathering evidence before filing a petition for a retrial.
Finally, in December 2024, the Supreme Court granted her application to reopen the case.
Outside the court, Ms Choi and her supporters celebrated the ruling, with placards reading, Choi Mal-ja did it! and Choi Mal-ja succeeded.
Her lawyer described the earlier conviction as a misjudgement due to gender bias and societal perceptions.
Ms Choi plans to file a civil lawsuit against the state for compensation, as advocacy groups emphasize the significance of her case for future victims of sexual violence in South Korea.
