A court also sentenced a woman in her 50s to seven years in prison on appeal for allegedly attempting to kill her husband by cutting a vital part of his body with a weapon.
The Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul High Court Incheon Panel (Presiding Judge Jeong Seung-gyu) on the 12th sentenced wife A, 59, who was detained and indicted on charges including aggravated bodily injury with a deadly weapon, to seven years in prison, the same as the lower court.
However, for A's son-in-law B, 40, who was indicted without detention on the same charge, the court overturned the lower court's sentence of four years in prison and imposed three years in prison, suspended for five years.
After the first-trial sentence, A and others appealed, saying the punishment was too heavy, and prosecutors also appealed on the grounds of an unfair sentence and factual error, saying "A and others had conditional intent to kill."
The appellate court said of the prosecution's appeal, "The lower court, after considering multiple pieces of evidence, did not recognize A and others' conditional intent to kill and recognized only the intent to cause serious injury." Regarding A's appeal, it said, "There are no circumstances since the original sentence to warrant changing the sentence," and "We do not accept the argument that the sentence is unfair."
Regarding son-in-law B, the court overturned the lower court's ruling, saying, "He reluctantly participated in the crime at his mother-in-law's request and did not plan or take the lead in carrying it out," and "He also reached an amicable settlement with the victim, so the lower court's sentence is deemed somewhat heavy."
Earlier, on Aug. 1 last year, A was detained and indicted on charges of stabbing her husband in his 50s in the face, arms and other areas 50 times with a weapon at a cafe in Ganghwa County, Incheon, and cutting a vital part of his body. Son-in-law B is accused of aiding A's crime by tying up the victim with tape, among other acts.
During the trial, A was said to have argued to the effect that "it was because of her husband's affair."
In the first trial, the Incheon District Court applied the charge of aggravated bodily injury with a deadly weapon to A and sentenced her to seven years in prison. However, it acquitted her of attempted murder. For accomplice son-in-law B, it sentenced him to four years in prison on the same charge, and for daughter C, it imposed a 3 million won fine for illegally tracking the victim's location using a private investigator.