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| Quarantine officials guide foreign arrivals at Incheon International Airport Terminal 1 amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic in this July 12 file photo. / Yonhap |
By Jun Ji-hye
An Indonesian man has received a suspended jail term for fleeing from a COVID-19 self-isolation facility in Seoul by digging a hole under a fence and crawling through.
The Seoul Central District Court said, Monday, it sentenced the 24-year-old man to an eight-month prison term, suspended for two years, for violating the Immigration Control Law.
The man entered Korea Sept. 21 and was put in 14-day self-isolation at a hotel in central Seoul. The hotel was one of the government-run self-quarantine facilities used to stem the spread of COVID-19.
The man fled from the facility Oct. 4, a day before his self-isolation period was supposed to end, by digging the hole in the hotel's flower garden with his bare hands.
Police apprehended him three days later in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, and he was put on trial.
"He was a foreign arrival subject to self-isolation, but fled from the facility before his self-isolation period ended. This was very risky behavior, considering the highly infectious nature of COVID-19," Judge Lee Soo-jeong said in her ruling. "He deserves criticism as he intentionally violated the self-isolation rules at a time when the health authorities and other people here were going all out to prevent the spread of the contagious disease."
The judge added the court decided on the suspended jail term, considering that he acknowledged his fault and that he wasn't infected with the virus.
