Pandemic created a class of 'coronavirus criminals'

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Pandemic created a class of 'coronavirus criminals'

Published: 26 May. 2022, 16:16 Updated: 26 May. 2022, 18:45

Business owners shave their hair in protest of quarantine measures in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Thursday. [NEWS1]

Tens of thousands of people have been charged with violating quarantine and social distancing rules over the past two years.

From January 2020, when Korea’s first Covid-19 case was reported, through March, 28,011 people were charged with violating the Infectious Disease Prevention Act. Social distancing measures such as restrictions on private gatherings and shortening of business hours, were obeyed by many and violated by more than a few. Two big categories were business owners who bent the rules to keep the revenues coming in, and office workers who were forced to go to work after contracting the virus, or felt the need to.

Many became “coronavirus criminals.”

As social distancing restrictions have been lifted, customers are again filling the sashimi restaurants in Jongno District, central Seoul. But the owner of one such restaurant, a Mr. Yang in his 40s, isn't celebrating. He is being investigated by police for violating the Infectious Disease Prevention Act. In 2021, Yang decided to protest the curfew that was ruining his business by keeping his restaurant open around the clock for several days. When the local government reported Yang to the police, he was charged with a crime for the first time in his life. He is awaiting trial.

Last month, the Gangnam police investigated a bar, which led to the indictment of its owner for operating after the business curfew. He was found guilty.

“Just yesterday, one of my employees committed suicide because of living costs,” the bar owner said in a phone interview with the JoongAng Ilbo on May 14. “This kind of news doesn’t get reported in the media, but a lot of business owners in Gangnam made the same choice [committing suicide] because they were banned from opening their businesses.”

Ordinary office workers risked becoming criminals by going to work after contracting Covid-19. Many got caught. In March, a man in his 40s went to work after being confirmed with Covid-19, and an acquaintance reported him to the police.

“Too many staff had gone on leave due to Covid-19, so there was a shortage of people who could work,” the man told the police. “I did it voluntarily, but I was almost forced to go to work.”

In April 2020, a woman in her 60s who was in self-isolation after coming into contact with a confirmed patient left her home to go to work, and was reported to the police by the Gangnam District Office.

According to the National Police Agency, 13,906 people, or 49.6 percent of those charged with violating the Infectious Disease Prevention Act in the past two years and two months, were found guilty. By charge, 24,696 (88.1 percent) were accused of violating the gathering ban or curfew, 2,474 (8.8 percent) of breaking quarantine, 453 (1.6 percent) for other violations, and 388 (1.3 percent) for interfering with epidemiological investigations.

Before the pandemic, only 4,055 were charged with violating the Infectious Disease Prevention Act, according to the 2020 Crime Statistics report. In 2015, when the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) hit Korea, only three people were arrested for violating the Infectious Disease Prevention Act.

Prosecutors were tough on people suspected of violating that law, indicting 39.8 percent of all suspects from January 2020 to April 2021, according to data released by the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, a non-governmental organization. Their overall criminal prosecution rate in 2020 was 30.9 percent.

Courts were tough too. Of the 566 indictments between February 2020 and June 2021, 77.6 percent of the accused were fined, 22.3 percent went to jail and there was only one acquittal, according to a survey conducted by the Lawyers for a Democratic Society.

As the government lifted most social distancing measures, violations of the Infectious Disease Prevention Act have almost disappeared. But some are worried about the state being too eager to crack down when the next pandemic comes along.

“Everyone acknowledges the importance of quarantine in the time of a pandemic,” said Jang Young-soo, a professor of constitutional law at the Korea University Law School. “And it is the role of the state to convince the public of the level of sacrifice needed.

“But if the imbalance of suppressing individual freedom while unilaterally emphasizing the safety of the majority persists, one side may burst."

BY PARK KUN [kjdnational@joongang.co.kr]