A South Korean woman has been acquitted after a court revisited her decades-old conviction for biting off the tongue of a man during an alleged sexual attack.
Choi Mal-ja now 79 year-old was 18 when she was convicted of grievous bodily harm and sentenced to 10 months in jail.
Her aggressor, who was 21 years then, received a lighter sentence of six months.
After a years-long campaign to clear her name, a retrial began in the southern city of Busan in July 2025.
There have been at least two other cases in South Korea of women biting off the tongues of sexual assailants. One in 1988 in the city of Andong and another in 2020 in Busan.
In both cases, the courts recognised what the women did as legitimate acts of self-defence, and ruled in their favour.
In 2018, inspired by the global #MeToo movement, but her path to exoneration has been challenging.
Lower courts rejected her petition saying there is no evidence to support her claims of self-defence.
Finally, in December 2024, the Supreme Court granted her application to reopen the case.
In its first hearing, prosecutors apologised to her and, in an unusual move, asked the court to quash the conviction.
"I could not let this case go unanswered... I wanted to stand up for other victims…," Ms Choi said after the acquittal.
As a teenager back then, the incident changed her fate from a victim to an accused.
She thanked her supporters, and called out those in power whom she said "abused their authority to trample the weak and manipulate the law".
This case has been cited in legal textbooks in South Korea as a classic example of a court failing to recognise self-defence during sexual violence.
According to court records, the attacker had pinned Ms Choi to the ground somewhere in the southern town of Gimhae. She only managed to break free after biting off about 1.5cm of his tongue.
The man continually demanded compensation for his injury and even broke into Ms Choi's home with a knife on one occasion threatening her.
He was never charged for attempted rape.
She was detained for six months during the investigation, and was later given a 10-month sentence, which was suspended for two years.
