A South Korean court has overturned the decades-old conviction of Choi Mal-ja, a woman once branded a criminal for defending herself against sexual assault in 1964.
Choi was only 19 when she was attacked in the southern town of Gimhae by a 21-year-old man who forced himself on her, choking her while shoving his tongue into her mouth. Desperate to escape, she bit off part of his tongue.
Instead of being recognised as a victim, Choi was sentenced in 1965 to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, for causing grievous bodily harm. Meanwhile, her attacker walked away with a suspended sentence for trespassing and intimidation.
On Wednesday, the Busan District Court ruled that Choi’s actions “constitute justifiable self-defence,” calling them a necessary response to “an unjust infringement on her bodily integrity and sexual self-determination.”
Now 79, Choi emerged from the courtroom wearing a bright pink blazer, smiling as supporters handed her flowers and waved placards declaring, “Choi Mal-ja did it!”
“Sixty-one years ago, in a situation where I could understand nothing, the victim became the perpetrator, and my fate was sealed as a criminal,” Choi told reporters after the ruling. “For the victims who shared the same fate as mine, I wanted to be a source of hope for them.”
Her appeal was reignited by the #MeToo movement, which inspired her to challenge the injustice. Activists and women’s rights groups in South Korea hailed the decision as a long-overdue recognition of self-defence in cases of sexual violence.
