[Anchor]
Choi Choong-rak, who was wearing an electronic monitoring anklet, had a criminal record of over 10 offenses, including two counts of attempted murder. Recently, he was even booked for possessing a weapon in a public place. However, it has been confirmed that the Ministry of Justice's electronic supervision management grade assigned to Choi was not in the high-risk group.
Reporter Lee Se-hyeon has this exclusive report.
[Reporter]
Choi Choong-rak, the suspect in the Incheon weapon rampage case, swung a weapon at a real estate agent at a realty office in 2004, and at his ex-wife with whom he was living after a divorce in 2007. In 2015, he stabbed an ex-wife who refused to reconcile, serving four years in prison on charges of attempted murder. He had a criminal record of 10 or more offenses.
Due to the risk of reoffending, he became a probation subject under the Ministry of Justice wearing an electronic anklet following his release from prison in 2019. According to SBS coverage, his classification fell under the "intensive" tier, which is on the lower side among the four tiers of the Ministry of Justice's electronic monitoring management grades.
Choi recently staged a one-person protest for two months harboring grievances against a hospital where he had received athlete's foot treatment, and was booked on October 4 for possession of a weapon in a public place.
The Ministry of Justice did not upgrade his management tier even after being notified by the police of his booking two days later.
Instead, it was reported that a probation officer had lunch with Choi just before his weapon rampage on October 13, giving only a verbal instruction that he "must not carry a weapon" without checking whether he was actually carrying one.
In response to an inquiry from SBS asking whether this constituted passive handling, an official from the Ministry of Justice explained, "The recent weapon possession case did not involve swinging a weapon at a person," adding, "To that extent, it does not correspond to a high-risk grade among electronic monitoring subjects."
The official also added, "We do not think that judgment was wrong."
Management grades are determined by weighing criminal records and other factors based on a risk assessment tool for reoffending. Controversy is expected as the ministry deemed that Choi did not fall under the high-risk group.
[Kim Dong-a / Member of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Democratic Party of Korea: The Ministry of Justice must comprehensively overhaul its electronic monitoring system. In addition, it should increase the insufficient electronic monitoring personnel and specially manage subjects with a high risk of reoffending.]
The Ministry of Justice also explained, "We were preparing additional procedures to check for weapon possession in the future."
(Video editing: Kim Yun-seong, Design: Kim Han-gil, Zegal Chan)
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