Actor O Yeong-su, 81, who has spent years in court over an indecent assault charge, was finally acquitted by the Supreme Court. A case in which guilt was found at the first trial was overturned to not guilty on appeal, and the ruling was finalized when the Supreme Court rejected the prosecutor's appeal.
According to legal sources on the 26th, the Supreme Court's third division dismissed the prosecutor's appeal, finding no issue with the appellate court's decision acquitting O Yeong-su, who had been indicted on an indecent assault charge.
O was brought to trial on charges of twice committing indecent assault against a woman, A, while he was staying in a provincial city in 2017 for a stage performance. Prosecutors argued that in August that year, O hugged A on a walking path in Daegu, and in September, he kissed her on the cheek in front of her residence.
O denied the charges during the trial. However, in March last year, the first-instance court said the victim's claim was consistent and the kind of statement one could not make without experiencing it, and found O guilty. The court at the time sentenced O to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered him to complete 40 hours of a sex offender treatment program.
Afterward, both O's side and the prosecution appealed. About one year and eight months later, the appellate court overturned the first-instance judgment and acquitted O at the sentencing hearing.
The appellate court ruled that while it was highly possible the defendant engaged in inappropriate words and behavior toward the victim, it was also possible the victim's memory was distorted over time, and when there is doubt about whether the defendant committed indecent assault, the benefit of the doubt must go to the defendant.
It also found that the victim's claim—that the hug was thought to be between colleagues but was tighter than usual—did not clearly compare how different it was from a polite hug, and therefore it was difficult to find the crime of indecent assault established based on the intensity of the hug alone.
The prosecution, dissatisfied with the appellate acquittal, filed an appeal in November last year, citing a misinterpretation of the law. But with the Supreme Court dismissing it, O was ultimately cleared of the charge.
O Yeong-su drew worldwide attention for playing Oh Il-nam, called the "gganbu grandpa," in the Netflix original series Squid Game, released in September 2021. For this work, he became the first Korean actor to win best supporting actor in the TV category at the 79th Golden Globes in January 2022.