Netizens growl at disparity in lovers’ punishment
A pair of illicit lovebirds at the Judicial Research and Training Institute was punished by the institute yesterday for violating decorum rules for legal professionals.
A 31-year-old married man faces expulsion from the training institute’s program while his 28-year-old lover has been suspended from training for three months.
But bloggers and netizens are pressing the institute to expel the female would-be judge as well.
The trainees’ love affair became public when the man’s wife committed suicide and her mother staged a one-person rally to denounce the pair.
She said her daughter took her life because of the extramarital affair.
The institute is the final training course for would-be lawyers, judges and prosecutors who have passed the bar examination.
Details of the messy family affair, including sexually explicit texts exchanged by the couple and offensive text messages from the man’s mother to the suicidal wife, went viral on the Internet last month, fuelling public intrigue and criticism. Web users set up an online forum calling for tough punishment for the pair.
Comments also proliferated on the institute’s official Web site. Enraged Web users have circulated the name and photos of the couple.
BY PARK EUN-JEE [ejpark@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.
Standards Board Policy (0/250자)