Acquittal sought in retrial of woman convicted 61 years ago for biting attacker’s tongue
Choi Mal-ja, who was convicted 61 years ago for injuring a man who attempted to rape her by biting his tongue, embraces her attorney and women’s rights advocates after the first hearing of her retrial at the Busan District Court on Wednesday. Yonhap
Prosecutors have requested an acquittal for Choi Mal-ja, a woman convicted 61 years ago for injuring a man who attempted to rape her, acknowledging for the first time that her actions were a legitimate act of self-defense.
The retrial opened and concluded on Wednesday at the Busan District Court, where prosecutors said Choi’s act of biting off part of her attacker’s tongue in 1964 was a reasonable and lawful response to sexual assault.
“This was a justified defensive act. It was not excessive, nor was it unlawful,” prosecutors said. “Our duty is to protect victims of crime not only from the act itself, but also from social stigma and secondary harm. In this case, the prosecution failed to fulfill that role. We sincerely apologize to Ms. Choi.”
Choi, now 78, was 18 at the time of the incident on May 6, 1964. She was sentenced to 10 months in prison with a two-year suspended sentence after being convicted of inflicting serious injury.
Although she had asserted that she acted in self-defense, the court rejected her claim. The assailant, surnamed Noh, received a lighter sentence of six months with a two-year suspension after prosecutors dropped the attempted rape charge and pursued only lesser offenses, including unlawful entry and threats.
Her legal team argued that the case should never have resulted in a conviction, describing it as a miscarriage of justice even by the standards of the time.
“This is not about evolving social values,” her attorney said. “This was a wrongful judgment from the start, and now is the time for the court to make it right.”
In her final statement, Choi told the court, “No nation can ever take responsibility for that demonic day in 1964 that pushed me to the edge of life and death. I beg you never to forget the pain and heartbreak endured by victims and their families — it’s like coughing up blood.”
She continued, “For 61 years, I have lived as a criminal. If I have any hope or dream left, it is that future generations will live in a world free of sexual violence. I pray, with both hands together, that Korea will create laws that allow people to live with dignity and happiness.”
Choi Mal-ja, 78, who was convicted 61 years ago for injuring a man who attempted to rape her by biting his tongue, raises her hand and shouts “I won,” after the first hearing of her retrial at the Busan District Court on Wednesday. Yonhap
Choi filed for a retrial in 2020, but her request was initially rejected by lower courts, which cited insufficient evidence to support her claims of coercion during the original investigation.
In 2023, the Supreme Court overturned those rulings, finding that prison records, trial documents, newspaper articles and other materials raised serious questions about the validity of the original verdict and warranted a new review.
In February this year, the Busan High Court upheld Choi’s appeal and ordered the retrial to proceed.
The final ruling is scheduled for Sept. 10 at 2 p.m. at the Busan District Court.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.