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Appellate court convicts husband of ‘raping’ wife
By Lee Hyo-sik
An appeals court upheld Sunday a lower court’s ruling that a husband who intimidated and assaulted his wife for sex must be punished for rape.
The Seoul High Court acknowledged that rape can occur between a husband and wife. It’s the first time that an appellate court has ruled on marital rape.
The court ruled the 40-year-old man had stabbed his wife and threatened her so she would have sex with him, but reduced his sentence to two-and-a-half years in prison suspended for three years. It said a husband has no right to intimidate and assault his wife for sex.
In April, the husband came home drunk and had a quarrel with his wife during which he stabbed her with a knife. He then threatened to beat her unless she had sex with him. The man was found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to five years in prison by a lower court.
“Marriage is based on the premise that a husband and wife continue to maintain sexual relations. So, married couples’ sexual matters should be treated differently from those between the unmarried. Whether rape can occur between married couples should be given discrete consideration,” the high court said.
Under Korea’s criminal code, only women are treated as a rape victim. Even if men are sexually assaulted by either men or women, it does not constitute a criminal offense.
“Wives are also women. So we cannot say that they cannot be raped by their husbands,” the court said, recognizing the crime can occur between married couples.
It said even though a husband has the right to ask a spouse to have sex, it cannot be said that he is allowed to force his wife to meet his sexual needs through violence and intimidation. “In this case, we can clearly say that the wife did not consent to sex,” the court said.
The defendant is widely expected to take the matter to the Supreme Court as the nation’s highest court has not acknowledged marital rape since 1970 when such a case was dealt with for the first time.
In 2009, the Busan District Court recognized rape between married couples, saying that wives are “women” as defined by criminal code. It also said a wife has a self-determined right to sex. The court was the first to make such a ruling.
An appeal was lodged with the Busan High Court but it was dismissed after the defendant committed suicide.