The Supreme Court overturned the ruling that imposed penalties on activists charged with obstruction of business for staging an anti-war demonstration by playing the violin atop an armored vehicle, and sent the case back to the Uijeongbu District Court.
According to the legal community on the 2nd, the Supreme Court's Second Division (Chief Justice Park Young-jae) overturned the second ruling in the appeal of eight members from the nonviolent anti-war civic group "A World Without War" on charges of obstruction of business and sent the case back to the Uijeongbu District Court. Previously, the second court had fined each of the eight individuals 500,000 won.
Eight members from A World Without War, including A, are accused of obstructing business by climbing on an K808 armored vehicle, an exhibit at the "2022 Republic of Korea Defense Industry Exhibition" held in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, in September 2022, playing the guitar and violin for about five minutes and shouting slogans such as "Stop the war business."
The defendants stated, "The time spent playing instruments or shouting slogans was about five minutes, and they did not take any action to block security personnel's attempts to intervene." They added, "Considering the scale of participation in the demonstration, its duration, and the characteristics of the location, it should not be punished as obstruction of business."
The first trial accepted the defendants' claims and acquitted the activists. However, the second court overturned the first ruling, recognizing the defendants' charges of obstruction of business and imposing fines of 500,000 won each. The second court stated, "The crime of obstruction of business can be established even if there is a risk of causing obstruction." They also noted, "The defendants caused a disturbance at the exhibition, which could have caused inconvenience to event staff and participating companies, and may have had a negative impact on the general public's perception of the exhibition."
The Supreme Court reversed the second ruling and discarded the case with a not guilty conclusion. The Supreme Court stated, "The defendants staged the anti-war protest at only one of the 1,350 exhibition booths set up at the exhibition, and its duration was merely within five minutes." They added, "It appears that they wanted to express their views without causing disruption to the exhibition operations, and it is difficult to see that their actions actually obstructed the exhibition's operations or created a risk of obstruction."