Overview

• On July 23, prosecutors at the Busan District Court formally apologized to Choi Mal-Ja and requested her acquittal, concluding her tongue-biting was a legitimate act of self-defence.
• Choi was 18 when she bit off about 1.5 centimetres of her attacker’s tongue during an attempted rape in Gimhae in May 1964 and was later convicted of aggravated bodily harm with a suspended sentence.
• In December 2023, South Korea’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial after Choi filed a petition in 2020, buoyed by the global #MeToo movement and support from the Korea Women’s Hotline.
• Prosecutors acknowledged that earlier proceedings had failed to protect Choi as a victim of sexual violence and had wrongly characterized her defensive action as excessive.
• The Busan District Court will deliver its final verdict on September 10, with legal experts predicting it will uphold the prosecution’s call to acquit and influence future self-defence jurisprudence in sexual assault cases.