Actress Files Petition to Scrap Adultery Law
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Actress Ok So-ri has filed a petition with the Constitutional Court to decide on the constitutionality of the adultery clause in the criminal law. She is on trial for alleged adultery.
The move is expected to rekindle the controversy on laws on adultery here.
According to Ok's lawyer Wednesday, he petitioned a local court to ask the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of the clause that gives up to two years of imprisonment for adultery.
Ok, 40, was indicted on the charges after her husband, actor Park Chul, accused her last October of having affairs with a foreign chef and a singer. He also filed for divorce.
The lawyer said in the petition that the adultery clause infringes on the rights of decision on an individuals sexual relations and the right to privacy.
``Adultery cases should be judged at a civil court, not a criminal court. Also, the clause exists as only a retaliatory measure for the spouse and does not help save the marriage,'' the petition said. ``Wedlock cannot be maintained by forcing the couple, whose nuptial relationship is already over, to remain sexually faithful to each other through criminal punishment.''
In most cases, the adultery suits are filed by wives against their husbands who commit adultery, and thus it was usually said that the clause protects women. The lawyer rejected it. ``There is no data that the clause actually protects women, especially now when women's social and economic status has been raised,'' he said.
The judge of the local court will decide soon whether to ask the Constitutional Court to review the petition. If the court asks for it, the case will be suspended until the Constitutional Court makes a decision.
The constitutionality of adultery is already pending at the court, as two judges at local courts asked it to review the criminal aspect last September. There were petitions filed by individuals and courts, but the court ruled the clause constitutional every time, saying the clause was necessary for good sexual morality.