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Prosecutors indict 63 for courthouse riot as police probe authors of incendiary online comments

Published: 10 Feb. 2025, 18:52

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Park Tae-hoon, chief of the Progressive Party's National University Committee, holds up a criminal complaint against the operators of onlines community websites DC Inside and Ilbe in front of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Seodaemun District, central Seoul, on Jan. 31. [NEWS1]

Prosecutors on Monday filed indictments against 63 individuals accused of involvement in a riot at the Seoul Western District Court last month.

Sixty-two of the suspects have already been detained by police, with just one suspect facing prosecution while not in custody.

The Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office charged the 63 suspects with obstructing public officials from carrying out their duties, trespassing and assault by storming the courthouse.

Thirty-nine suspects have been accused of forcibly opening the back gate of the Seoul Western District Court and climbing over its walls in the early hours of Jan. 19, hours after it approved an arrest warrant against President Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of masterminding an insurrection by declaring martial law in December.

The warrant extended Yoon’s detention by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which took him into custody on Jan. 15.

Seven of the suspects are also accused of causing damage to the external walls of the courthouse, breaking windows, smashing surveillance cameras and destroying internal equipment.

Most of the suspects were detained by police between Jan. 23 and 31.

The prosecution said the indictments reflected “the grave nature of the suspects’ crimes against the rule of law and the judiciary” and said it would “do its best to obtain prison sentences that correspond to the gravity” of their actions.

The announcement came the same day that police launched an investigation against the authors of online comments that they believe are aimed at inciting a similar attack on the Constitutional Court, which is overseeing Yoon’s impeachment trial.

After a person arrested in connection with the Jan. 19 riot at the Seoul Western District Court requested advice on DC Inside, other commentators on the website called him a ″patriot″ and questioned whether he had committed a crime. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The comments were posted to DC Inside, the country’s eighth most-visited website, which has become notorious for hosting chaotic and free-wheeling commentary in recent years.

The website features different “galleries,” one of which is a right-wing forum where anonymous writers shared blueprints of the Seoul Western District Court and observations of security patrols.

Unlike many major Korean websites, DC Inside does not require commentators to log in, which critics claim creates a ripe environment for hate speech and conspiracy theories to flourish under the cover of anonymity.

Speaking at a press briefing on Monday, an official from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) told reporters that the probe into the incendiary comments would be handled by the agency’s cybercrime investigation unit.

According to the official, the investigation will center around 15 comments highlighted by a criminal complaint filed with the Yeongdeungpo Police Precinct and another five comments submitted for examination by the SMPA’s cybercrime investigation unit.

Police also plan to investigate whether any of the writers of the comments in question were involved in planning the mob attack on the Seoul Western District Court.

The SMPA has also launched an investigation into whether the operator of DC Inside abetted the courthouse riot by not controlling the website’s commentary.

Police are already probing 74 posts on the website that they suspect are intended to incite criminal attacks against judges and politicians.

Investigators have detained five suspects in connection with the posts.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]