Four inmates who forced a fellow inmate in a shared cell at a detention center to undergo a forced penile enlargement procedure, causing serious injury, have been indicted.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Criminal Trial Division 4 (Director General Prosecutor Jeong Dae-hee) said on the 31st that it indicted without detention four people including A, 32, on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes and the Medical Service Act.
According to prosecutors, the four, including A, are accused of threatening victim B, 27, in a shared cell at the detention center in August, saying they would bully B with "ostracism" if B did not obey, then forcing B to undergo a penile enlargement procedure by injecting foreign substances into the genitals.
It was found that A, a so-called MZ-generation gang member, led the crime, instructed C, 28, and D, 27, on the procedure, and D, 43, acted as a lookout with a mirror to avoid the guard's surveillance.
Victim B, who suffered injuries including a penile abscess from the procedure, applied for a suspension of sentence execution on Sept. 30. Initially, B claimed to have injected foreign substances into the genitals voluntarily out of fear of threats from A and others.
However, the prosecutor in charge determined that it was impossible to perform the procedure alone and launched an investigation. Through statements from the victim's acquaintances, a review of recorded visitation transcripts, the victim's interview, and searches and seizures, authorities confirmed that inmates in the same cell committed the crime in an organized manner.
The prosecution's investigation found that all four defendants, including A, either had tattoos or had already undergone self-performed penile enlargement procedures. They reportedly also intimidated victim B, who was in the same cell, by flaunting gang power and threatening ostracism if B did not undergo the procedure.
Prosecutors quickly provided medical expenses to the victim, who suffered serious injury and is still receiving treatment, through the "pre-indictment victim support" program. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said it was "a case that protected the human rights of a crime victim by promptly providing medical expense support to an inmate who suffered significant harm in a detention facility where crimes are hard to uncover and who might have had difficulty receiving timely treatment."