"The loneliest people are the most kind, and the saddest people smile the brightest. Because they don't want others to suffer the same pain."
The words in the movie "Suyuan" have moved countless people.
In the Korean movie "Suwon", 8-year-old elementary school student Suwon meets the murderer.
Image source: Screenshot of Zhongxin Video
On December 12, amidst the sound of controversy, Zhao Doushun (also translated as Zhao Douchun) was released from prison.
Zhao Doushun's father was let go "angry"
At around 6 a.m. on the 12th, there was a commotion outside a prison in southern Seoul-Zhao Dousun was released from prison after serving his sentence.
"Sent him to death!" Some of the protesters gathered nearby shouted in unison, causing a certain amount of chaos, causing the police to set up guardrails about 100 meters away from the prison.
Image source: Associated Press
In order to avoid accidents, Zhao Doushun took a special car to his hometown, Ansan, Gyeonggi-do.
Anshan was also the place where the crime took place.
"Zhao Doushun really came out?" Standing under a row of newly installed cameras, several people in Tanyuan District, Anshan City were talking about it.
Twelve years ago, a child sexual assault case broke the peace of the community.
The picture shows a large number of cameras installed near Cho Doosun's home in Ansan City, Gyeonggi Province.
Photo by Zeng Nai
In 2008, 56-year-old Zhao Doushun kidnapped 8-year-old girl Naying (a pseudonym), beat and raped her with extremely cruel methods, resulting in the girl’s pelvic fracture, internal organ rupture, and 80% damage to her lower body organs. She was permanently disabled and barren. Carry an artificial anus.
The case was made into the movie "Suwon", which was released in South Korea in just a few days in October 2013, and the number of viewers exceeded 1 million.
The film was then sold to many countries, causing a sensation.
Some viewers commented that the most shocking sentence of the whole film was-"Adapted from real events".
In the South Korean movie "Suwon", a little girl who was sexually assaulted wakes up in the hospital.
Image source: Screenshot of the movie "Suyuan"
Reality is more sad than movies.
Naying's father once wrote a preface to the book "Suyuan" and described it like this:
"Before removing the stool bag, the child would have nightmares almost every night, and it is the same nightmare. In the dream, the monster kept chasing her and other children. In the end, although everyone else escaped, she did Was taken away mercilessly by the monster..."
As the law was not perfect at that time, Zhao Doushun was sentenced to only 12 years in prison.
On December 12, 2020, 12 years later, Zhao Doushun went home.
According to his words, "You can't move, you can only go back to your hometown."
The release of Zhao Doushun caused strong controversy.
Nearly 1 million South Korean netizens left a petition on the Blue House website of the Presidential Palace, requesting a retrial of the case.
However, according to South Korea’s current law, the same case cannot be retried and sentenced.
On social networks, many residents who live in Anshan complained:
"The community has become the most famous residence of sex offenders in the country, and life is very bad." "If Zhao Doushun comes back, I will move." "Why must he be released from prison?"...
South Korean people posted on the Blue House petition website against Cho Doo-soon’s release from prison.
Image source: Screenshot of South Korea’s Blue House petition website
More people are fear and worry, especially the victim's family.
Naying's family still lives near Anshan because of financial constraints.
After learning that Zhao Dousoon would return to Anshan, Naying's father was emotional when interviewed by the media:
"If Zhao Doushun reflects on it, he should never return to Anshan. This is not as good as an animal."
He couldn't help asking: "Should we continue to move?" "Why are the victims always the victims?!"
The picture shows Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, with a large number of cameras installed.
Photo by Zeng Nai
Ansan "panic of the whole people" urgently recruits martial arts talents
Wearing electronic shackles, Zhao Doushun returned to social life on the 12th.
The reporter saw in the neighborhood of Zhao Doushun's house that this is an ordinary community, dominated by low-rise buildings of 4-5 floors; multiple sets of surveillance cameras have been installed at almost every intersection, and there are many police officers.
The picture shows a large number of cameras installed near Cho Doosun's home in Ansan City, Gyeonggi Province.
Photo by Zeng Nai
Zhao Doushun's release from prison caused local panic.
The mayor of Ansan City, Yoon Hexie, said that he had received more than 3,600 protest calls.
He once wrote to the Ministry of Justice of South Korea saying that the lives of more than 700,000 Anshan citizens were affected and that Zhao Doushun should be placed in a separate isolation facility.
The measure was rejected because it did not comply with the law.
According to regulations, after Zhao Doushun’s release from prison, his photos, address and other personal information will be continuously disclosed online for 5 years; he must also wear a positionable electronic anklet for 7 years.
In order to prevent Zhao Doushun from committing a crime again, South Korea "does everything possible."
In an interview with a reporter from China News Agency, Ansan City Government introduced that two patrol posts have been established near the residential area of Zhao Doushun, equipped with 12 police officers to patrol 24 hours; nearly 4,000 cameras have been added, and functions such as location tracking and face recognition have been introduced. No blind spot monitoring.
The picture shows Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, with a large number of cameras installed.
Photo by Zeng Nai
Among them, the local specially recruited 6 "special talents": they have certificates of taekwondo and judo, and they have served in special forces and UN peacekeeping forces.
They will be responsible for close patrols of Zhao Doushun as "volunteer police".
The local area also issued an "emergency bell" to nearby residents, who can call the police at any time.
According to Korean media reports, Zhao Doushun handed in nearly 100 petitions in prison, each of which said "Let me meet the victim."
However, the authorities strictly forbid Zhao Doushun from approaching the victim and forbid him to enter within 100 meters of the victim's residence, school, etc.
Kang Ho-sung, director of the Crime Prevention Bureau of the Ministry of Justice of South Korea, told reporters that with the victim’s consent, a "smart watch-style protective device" will be provided. When Zhao Doo-soon is within 1 km of the victim, the police will automatically call the police; To One" monitors Zhao Doushun's route 24 hours a day.
Jiang Haocheng said that Zhao Doushun’s criminal record showed that most of the incidents occurred while drinking, and he will be restricted from drinking and going out at night in accordance with the law.
On December 12, 2020, the Korean movie "Sowon" prototype criminal Zhao Dou-soon was released from prison after serving his sentence.
Image source: Screenshot of Zhongxin Video
12 years of blood and tears: from legal loopholes to chemical castration
"Dad, how many years has that bad uncle been sentenced?"
"He was sentenced to 12 years, so he will have to stay in prison for another 10 years before he can come out."
"Cut! Anyway, I must be strong before then."
During the trial, Zhao Doushun repeatedly changed his remarks, insisting that he drank a lot and was unconscious at the time of the case, and “remembered nothing”.
Although the police provided a lot of evidence including Zhao Doushun's fingerprints obtained at the crime scene, the maximum penalty for sexual assault was only 15 years in South Korean law at that time, and drunkenness was one of the basis for a light trial.
In the end, Zhao Doushun was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
This triggered strong national protests in South Korea, leading the then President Lee Myung-bak to kneel and apologize, promising to promote relevant reforms.
In a sense, this human tragedy promoted the improvement of the law.
In 2010, the South Korean National Assembly raised the maximum imprisonment for child sexual assault from 15 years to 30 years, and abolished the statute of limitations for child sexual crimes.
In 2013, the fixed-term imprisonment was raised to life imprisonment.
In 2012, the "Chemical Castration Act for Repeated Sexual Assaults on Children" came into effect, and South Korea became the first country in Asia to allow chemical castration of sexual assaults.
A year later, a South Korean court imposed chemical castration on a criminal who sexually assaulted five girls for three years.
Former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak expressed his support for the "chemical castration law."
Image source: CCTV video screenshot
In addition, South Korea has also amended a number of laws to require that parole is not allowed for offenders of child sexual violence, and to step up efforts to combat child cyber-sex crimes.
Just before Cho Doosun was released from prison, South Korea passed a bill to strengthen post-prison control of child sexual assaults:
In 2019, the Congress passed a bill called the "Zhao Doushun Act", which requires the implementation of "one-on-one" 24-hour surveillance on minors who are at risk of recidivism.
In November of this year, the Congress passed the "Protection and Containment Law" known as the "Zhao Doushun Prevention and Control Law", which requires strengthening the supervision of electronic anklet wearers.
The perfection of the law is the cornerstone of social progress, but the law needs to be enforced and believed, otherwise it will be useless.
As Ehrlich, the founder of the European Sociological School of Law, famously said:
"The focus of law development is not in legislation, not in law, nor in judicial decisions, but in society itself."
Child sex crimes "may happen at any time"
Perhaps, the Zhao Doushun case is somewhat accidental and extreme, but child sexual assault is by no means unique.
UNICEF released a report in 2017 that about 15 million adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 19 were forced to have sexual intercourse worldwide.
In 2018, the South Korean National Police Agency released statistics saying that crime cases have been decreasing year by year, but sexual crimes have been increasing.
An investigation agency in South Korea once issued a report stating that an average of 3 sexual crimes targeting children occur every day.
With the development of technology, new types of sexual crimes are becoming more rampant and more concealed.
Following the involvement of South Korean artists such as Victory and Zheng Junying in sex scandals last year, in March this year, South Korea’s "Room N" was exposed, causing public outrage.
Mainly by people nicknamed "Doctors", a private paid chat group was established on the communication platform Telegram to share indecent photos of women, involving rape, serious insults to women, etc. The pictures were unsightly and involved many minors.
In November this year, the 24-year-old Zhao Zhubin, the principal offender of "House N", was sentenced to 40 years in prison in the first instance.
Data map: Zhao Zhubin, the principal culprit in the South Korean "Room N" case.
In June, South Korea released the "Investigation on the Status of Victims of the Brothers Welfare Institute Incident", which disclosed incidents of sexual violence in welfare institutions.
Child sex crime is a problem in South Korea.
On the one hand, children are easily targeted by criminals because of their low self-protection awareness.
On the other hand, some analysts claim that the imperfect laws and the South Korean patriarchal culture are one of the reasons for the rampant sex crimes.
Research reports from many countries have pointed out that sex offenders have a "higher probability of reoffending," and most of them are repeat offenders.
According to Korean media reports, Zhao Doushun had more than 10 convictions before cruelly assaulting Naying.
Although in prison, the South Korean Ministry of Justice conducted hundreds of hours of psychological counseling on Zhao Doushun, but the test results against him still showed "high sexual deviation".
This means that he is more likely to commit a crime again.
The British Child Violence Protection Center believes that the most important thing to prevent child sexual assault is to break the taboo, let the children dare to speak out, the media dare to expose it, and the society dare to deal with it.
Social security and relief mechanisms also urgently need to be improved.
Naying's father once pointed out that the designated hospitals for treating sexually assaulted patients are pitifully few, and they are basically concentrated in big cities such as Seoul, and it is necessary to travel back and forth to receive a treatment or psychological intervention.
Naying's father was interviewed.
Image source: Video screenshot of South Korea JTBC TV station
Kang Ho-sung, director of the Crime Prevention Bureau of the Ministry of Justice of South Korea, pointed out that for criminals such as Zhao Doosun, they are in custody all year round and are seriously out of touch with society. In addition to necessary supervision, they must also support their employment and livelihood to stabilize society.
When writing recommendations for the novel "Suyuan", Naying's father finally said:
"Please don't ignore it, because it may happen to us at any time."
Author: Zeng Nai