Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
The criminal case against Seungri that has been going on since early 2019 is coming to an end now, perhaps with a bit of a surprising result, as the military court has sentenced him to three years in prison and detained him. He faced nine charges and was convicted on all of them.
On August 12, the sentencing trial was held at the military court for Seungri, who has been indicted for nine charges, which are violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes, violation of the Food Sanitation Act, embezzlement, violation of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes, habitual gambling, violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, prostitution mediation, purchase of prostitution services, and special violence instigation. At the sentencing trial, Seungri was sentenced three years in prison also with a fine of 1,156,900,000 won (approximately $994,544). His personal information will be registered in the national registry for the violation of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes.
Although Seungri previously denied all charges except for violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, the court declared him guilty of all nine charges.
The court essentially didn’t believe the excuses, which is no surprise to anybody who has paid attention to the case, but they usually get away with this.
The court commented regarding the charge on prostitution mediation, “The defendant conspired with Yoo In Suk to mediate prostitution for foreign investors on several occasions and gained profits,” and added, “The defendant’s crimes that commercialized sex have a large negative influence on society.” The court also stated, “As his testimonies were inconsistent and changed between the police investigation, prosecution investigation, and at court, his credibility is low.”
As the court saw potential flight risk, Seungri was arrested at court on August 12. Although he was originally scheduled to be complete his military service in mid-September, he will now be discharged from the military due to his sentence.
As somebody who followed this case and poured through it both in English and Korean to try and figure out what was going on, especially due to the nature of a sizable fandom coming after you for every blip that emerged, this shouldn’t surprise me, as it was pretty obvious that the chances he had zero connection to anything that happened was miniscule. That said, with how things were trending, the time it was taking, and the fact that he got the case transferred to military court, I did expect him to get away with it legally.
That would, of course, allow his fans to go complete delusion mode even though what he admitted is morally heinous enough. Thus, I’m happy for his victims that they get something even if it’s not enough, and I do also feel good for the people who have had to deal with the harassment and threats who were simply trying to translate the news. It’s probably not necessarily justice given that we know stuff has been covered up, and it’s sad that even anything feels like a win, but it does.
