Former Mayor Oh Geo-don crying during a press conference with resignation on April 23, 2020. Reporter Song Bong-geun
On the 28th, the Busan District Prosecutor’s Office announced that the former mayor had been arrested on charges of forced assault, forced harassment, attempted harassment, and innocence. Oh, it has been nine months since the mayor resigned from the mayor, acknowledging the fact that the mayor forcibly harassed a female employee.
Two victims of forced harassment… Adjustment of resignation period’no charge’
According to the prosecution, Mayor Oh is suspected of forcibly harassing A, a female employee at Busan City Hall in November 2018, and attempting to forcibly harass Mr. A in December of that year. Then, the prosecution decided that Mayor Oh forcibly molested a female employee B in the office of the mayor of Busan in April 2020, causing injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Busan Sexual Violence Counseling Office has demanded that Mr. B is injured due to extreme stress since he was forced to be assaulted, and that the charges of forced molestation should be applied.
An activist at the Busan Sexual Violence Counseling Center reads the victims’ statements at a press conference calling for strict punishment and the cessation of the second offense held at the plaza in front of Busan City Hall on June 9, 2020. Yonhap News·News 1
Along with this, the prosecution applied an innocence to the act of suing a YouTube broadcasting operator who had allegedly raised a suspicion of Me-Too by Mayor Oh for defamation.
The Busan District Prosecutor said, “In August of last year, the police did not admit the allegations of Mr. A, but applied only the charges of forcibly harassing Mr. B.” The prosecution added, “The prosecution added, “By proving the causal relationship between the post-traumatic stress experienced after Mr. B was forcibly assaulted, the charges for’forced molestation’ were added.”
The allegations of employment corruption for the purpose of complaining of forced harassment related to Mr. A raised by civil organizations and other accusers were treated as no charges. The prosecution explained that Mr. A considered the highest score among the candidates for recruitment of institution C.
The prosecution also ended the suspicion of violating the Public Office Election Act by adjusting the timing of the mayor and his aides to resign. The Busan District Prosecutor said, “Mr. B first requested the resignation of the mayor in the morning, and other factors such as the influence of the mayor or close associates did not work when determining the timing.” It was confirmed that they wanted to be notarized while making the decision.”
Prosecutors concluded that the mayor’s harassment was a typical power-type sex crime. An official at the prosecution said, “Education on the prevention of sexual harassment and sexual violence was conducted twice a year for the employees of Busan City Hall.” “There was only one employee dedicated to the grievance of sexual harassment and sexual violence, so it was difficult to be protected unless the victim reported it. The system for responding to sexual harassment and sexual violence in Busan at the time was also not working properly.”
The Busan District Prosecutor’s Office plans to strict the act of causing secondary harm to victims.
Busan = Reporter Eunji Lee [email protected]