A South Korean court on Wednesday acquitted Choi Mal-ja, who was convicted more than six decades ago for biting off part of a man’s tongue while resisting an alleged sexual assault.
Prosecutors in the retrial in Busan made an unusual public apology to Choi and asked the court to quash the 61-year-old conviction, saying her actions should be viewed as legitimate self-defence. Choi, who was 18 at the time of the incident and is now 79, said she pursued the case to stand up for other victims of sexual violence.
Court records say the attacker, then 21, pinned Choi to the ground in the southern town of Gimhae and that she only managed to free herself after biting off about 1.5 centimetres of his tongue. The man repeatedly demanded compensation and on one occasion broke into Choi’s home with a knife, South Korean media reported. He received a six-month suspended sentence for trespassing and intimidation and was not charged with attempted rape. Choi was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm and was given a 10-month sentence, suspended for two years; she was detained for six months during the investigation.
Choi and supporters have campaigned for decades to clear her name. Inspired in 2018 by the global #MeToo movement, she contacted advocacy groups and spent about two years gathering evidence before filing for a retrial. Lower courts initially rejected her petitions, saying there was insufficient evidence to support her claim of self-defence. The Supreme Court granted an application to reopen the case in December 2024, paving the way for the retrial that began in July.
"I could not let this case go unanswered... I [wanted] to stand up for other victims who share the same fate as mine," Choi said after Wednesday’s verdict. She told reporters the episode had transformed her life "by turning [me] from a victim to an accused." Outside the court, Choi and her supporters celebrated, holding placards that read, "Choi Mal-ja did it!" and "Choi Mal-ja succeeded."
Her lawyer, Kim Soo-jung, called the original conviction a "misjudgement due to gender bias and societal perceptions," and said the prosecution and judiciary had the opportunity to correct that error. Kim added that Choi plans to file a civil suit against the state seeking compensation.
Advocacy groups that backed Choi said the ruling could influence how defensive acts by women during sexual assaults are judged in South Korea. Song Ran-hee of the Korea Women’s Hotline said the verdict should send a message to victims that "your voice matters" and that defensive acts will be more likely to be understood as legitimate.
Legal scholars have long cited Choi’s case in textbooks as an example of courts failing to recognize self-defence during sexual violence. There have been at least two other instances in South Korea — in 1988 in Andong and in Busan in 2020 — in which women who bit off attackers’ tongues were later found to have acted in self-defence and were exonerated.
The retrial and acquittal come amid broader social change in South Korea, where the #MeToo movement has prompted wider public discussion and legal scrutiny of sexual violence and how courts treat victims. Choi’s supporters and legal advocates say the case could set a precedent for future rulings and provide relief to others who have faced similar treatment by the justice system.
The prosecution’s apology at the retrial’s opening and its request to quash the conviction were notable steps toward redressing the decades-old judgment, a development that Choi and her supporters hailed as a long-overdue correction.
No image was provided with this report.