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A man in his 30s who was discharged from the military as an active duty soldier but did not attend 20 times of reserve army training due to personal and religious beliefs was sentenced to a fine in the first trial.



The Seoul Southern District Court's 7th Criminal Division (Judge Park Ye-ji) announced yesterday (19th) that it had sentenced a man in his 30s, who was recently charged with violating the Reserve Military Act, to a fine of 8 million won.



From September 2017 to October 2019, Mr. A is accused of not participating in the reserve army training 20 times without justifiable reasons, even though he received a notice of the call for training for the reserve army through his wife at home.



It is known that Mr. A enlisted in KATUSA Soldiers in 2009 and was discharged. Mr. A, whose father is a Presbyterian pastor, has been a member of the Anabaptist Church, one of the Christian denominations, after being discharged from the military.



He said, "I met God in 2007, and when I heard the Israeli bombing of Gaza in 2008, I seriously thought about joining the military, war and peace, but at that time I was not in the mood to talk about conscientious objection to military service, so I enlisted in KATUSA." .



"During my military service, I read books on war and peace and developed a negative attitude toward the military and war," he said.



In November 2018, the Supreme Court recognized conscientious objection to military service for the first time, and on the 1st of the last month, left a judgment stating that conscientious objection to military training on the grounds of religion should not be punished.



However, the Supreme Court ruled, "It must be based on a desperate and concrete conscience that the value of personal existence will be destroyed without refusing to train the reserve forces for reasons of conscience, and data must be presented to convince us that the conscience is deep, firm, and sincere." I did.




Accordingly, the court judged A's conscientious objection to military service by taking into account A's family environment, growth environment, school life, religious life, social life, and military service.



In the courtroom, the judge said, "The defendant's father is a Presbyterian pastor, and the defendant has been baptized in the Presbyterian Church and has been living a religious life for a long time. In the above religion, conscientious objection to military service is not a doctrine. ' he opened his mouth.



"There is not enough objective and specific data to show that conscience is being formed in relation to refusal to perform military service even in the school life record submitted by the defendant, or that such a conscience decision was expressed in real life."



He continued, "After entering university, the accused was active in a Christian club, but there is not enough data to prove that he was a conscientious objector to military service. In the meantime, the accused received advice from a colleague that KATUSA Soldiers could study English and was comfortable, so he applied for KATUSA Soldiers and served active duty. "The defendant's conscientious objection to military service does not appear to be based on an urgent and concrete conscience."



In addition, "I question whether Mr. A's refusal to train for the reserve army is based on a deep, clear and sincere conscience," he said.



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(Photo = Yonhap News)