A man in his 20s who scaled a court wall during the "Western District Court disturbance" in Jan. last year received a suspended prison sentence at the first trial.
According to legal sources on the 16th, Presiding Judge Park Ji-won of the Seoul Western District Court Criminal Division 1 sentenced a person surnamed Shin (26), who was indicted on a charge of trespassing into a building, to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and 120 hours of community service. A person surnamed Kwon (33), indicted on the same charge, was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years, and 40 hours of community service.
Shin was brought to trial on charges of attending a large rally near the Western District Court on Jan. 18 last year, when a warrant review (pre-arrest interrogation) for former President Yoon Suk-yeol was held, and climbing over the wall at night to trespass into the court. Kwon, like Shin, attended the rally and then tried to climb over the court wall but failed. They were subsequently arrested in the act.
The presiding judge said, "The motive and method of the crime are unfavorable." However, the judge explained, "There is no prior criminal record at all, and they were arrested immediately after climbing over the wall, so the harm to the court building was not severe, which was taken into account."