Must Read Post at GI Korea
by Richardson ~ September 1st, 2006. Filed under: Anti-Americanism, Law.Two American GIs are getting raked over the coals:
So one kid who got the crap beaten out of him by a mob including get hit across the face with a pipe has paid $9,000 in compensation money and is looking at 18 months in Korean jail, while another GI whose sole crime was pushing a bar owner after being grabbed first by the bar owner, and he then proceeded to get the crap beaten out him by a Korean mob and the GI has since paid $18,000 in compensation money and is looking at a year in Korean jail for that push.
And having their rights blatantly violated by Korean courts:
The soldiers repeatedly asked the translators to clarify questions… Judge Jung Jin-ho ordered the junior of the two translators to take over the duties over the senior translator’s objections.
When the soldiers left the courtroom before noon, both complained to their attorney, saying they didn’t understand what was happening in court.
[…]
During Wednesday’s testimony, a Stars and Stripes translator heard the judge ask both soldiers, separately, whether they “admitted” to various aspects of their cases. The court translators, however, asked the soldiers only whether they were “aware” of those aspects. The soldiers answered “yes” to nearly every question. (emphasis added)
I urge you to send this information and this link to GI Korea’s post to news desks and your represenatives in Washington.
September 1st, 2006 at 7:45 am
Sad to say, this sounds all to familiar to me from my JAG experience. Attorneys were hired for a flat rate and didn’t care … incompetent translation … lawyers across the room from their clients … judges literally sleeping in court. Typical and pathetic. It ought to be a scandal.
September 1st, 2006 at 12:49 pm
A reader informs me that House Int’l Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, based on issues raised during his recent visit to Seoul, is considering holding a hearing on the U.S.-ROK alliance when Congress returns after Labor Day.
More on Chairman Hyde’s visit here and here.
September 1st, 2006 at 7:56 pm
I sent an email to Bill Oreilly and my congressman. This is why they wanted to try US Servicemembers in their courts. We’re just big open wallets to them.
September 1st, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Joshua,
With your experience as both lawyer and prosecutor for USFK in Korea, can you offer any explanation why the judge likely won’t extenuate their sentences when “self defense” would seem a reason explanation why while protecting himself from a beating by ten guys one of the “victims” gets injured? Boo hoo! Also how much more severe would the punishment be if they didn’t pay the “blood money” to their “victims?”
You’re right though it should be a scandal. My Canadian friend’s loony Korean wife rattles on everytime I see her about the unfair SOFA and USFK not paying their parking tickets, having nothing to fear about Korean law blah blah blah
September 2nd, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Joshua thanks for the link, and hopefully somebody will read this and help these soldiers actually receive a fair trial instead of the kangaroo court going on right now in Uijongbu.
September 2nd, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Brendan, the fact is that GIs in Korea have .
It is actual Korean law, so even if a mob is beating you down you can’t fight back and claim self defense.
September 2nd, 2006 at 5:56 pm
There was something over at USFK Forums from someone claiming to be on the staff of a US media outlet who warned another one of those GI Whoring exposes is in the works with camera people hitting the hot zones this weekend or something like that.
It would also be interesting to go back in the congressional record and compare how much attention was paid to USFK’s ties to sex slavery and how much to anti-US thought in Korea and its effect on USFK members and issues like this.
September 2nd, 2006 at 8:45 pm
Minor correction, thank you Richardson in fact for the link.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:20 am
Yet another reason we should leave this country. Will these two be able to press charges against the 10 guys that beat their asses? What is it, a race to court to see who can press charges first after a fight?
September 5th, 2006 at 7:57 am
There you have, short and sweet, one of the major reasons why I am an American today, and not a Korean (I would’ve been far better off economically in Korea than in the U.S., not that I do badly here).
I dig the whole natural rights thing.
September 5th, 2006 at 10:01 am
The value to U.S. policy/projection/regional influence needs to be considered. In that context, I don’t think leaving b/c Korea has a screwed up legal system is in the best interest of the nation.
What should be done is some looking into the attorneys who represent U.S. service members in Korean courts to find out, for example, why it took Stars and Stripes to point out the inaccurate translation rather than the USFK paid-for lawyer.
September 5th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
I’m not saying leave Korea solely because it’s screwed up legal system. I’m saying take this, add it to the rest of the laundry list of reasons for leaving this backward ungrateful country, and you have an extremely strong argument against sticking around.
September 5th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
I do, it’s called “regional instability” and “arms race.”
Leaving for reasons like Korea is “ungrateful” ignores what we gain from being there. In a rational cost-benefit look at the situation, I believe it would be extremely foolish for USFK to leave.