Court gives man five-year sentence for helping athletes dodge draft

A screen at the Military Manpower Administration Seoul office in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, in February, shows a man that he is fit for active duty. [YONHAP]

A Seoul court handed a five-year prison sentence and 1.4 billion won ($1 million) on Wednesday to a fixer who helped athletes and musicians dodge conscription.

The Seoul Southern Central District Court said the fixer's actions leave "conscripts who duly performed their duties" with "a sense of dejection," noting, "The defendant has also earned a huge amount of money through his wrongdoings."

The fixer, identified by his last name Koo, helped some 40 clients from February 2020 to October 2022 obtain falsified medical documents to evade conscription or getting drafted into the armed forces.

Koo told his clients to pretend as if they were having symptoms of epilepsy, such as seizures, during their visits to hospitals.

Koo assisted them in submitting the falsified medical records to the Military Manpower Administration and received money in return.

"The nature of this crime is corrupted as it had been deliberately planned for a long time," the court added.

His clients include rapper Ravi, volleyball player Jo Jae-sung and footballers Kim Myung-jun and Kim Seung-jun.

They were sentenced to one year in prison and suspended for two years for violating the Military Service Act in their initial trial.

Epilepsy is a medical condition that is hard to detect using traditional diagnostics methods, such as MRI scans or brainwave tests. The athletes and musicians exploited this characteristic of the condition to dodge the draft.

Another fixer who used the same method as Koo was sentenced to three years behind bars and was ordered to pay a fine of 217 million won.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]