Bereaved Family Pleads for Death Penalty for Jang Yoon-gi: 'Must Be Permanently Isolated'

[Anchor]

The third trial for Jang Yoon-gi has been held. The parents of the late Lee Chae-won appeared in court as witnesses, urging the court to sentence Jang Yoon-gi to death and permanently isolate him from society.

This is reporter Lee Se-hyeon.

[Reporter]

At 10:00 a.m. yesterday, the third trial for Jang Yoon-gi, the perpetrator of the high school girl murder case, took place at the Gwangju District Court.

The parents of the late Lee Chae-won, who was killed by Jang Yoon-gi, took the stand as witnesses.

In a statement read aloud in court, Lee's parents earnestly requested of the bench, "We desperately ask that you sentence the defendant to the maximum penalty of death so that he may be permanently isolated from society."

They appealed, saying, "We cannot shake off the fear that if the perpetrator ever returns to society, he might commit the unfulfilled crime against someone else."

[Kim Moon-seok / Legal representative for the bereaved family of the late Lee Chae-won: My dead daughter cannot return, but if the living perpetrator comes out into the world, it is equivalent to handing down another death sentence to us who are left behind.]

A bystander identified by his surname Ko, who suffered serious injuries from Jang Yoon-gi's knife attack while trying to help Lee, also appeared as a witness.

During the witness examination, which was closed to the public, Ko reportedly testified about the situation at the time, stating, "Jang Yoon-gi calmly asked me to call 119 instead, and the moment I looked at my phone to make the call, he suddenly attacked my neck."

In this trial, additional evidence submitted by the prosecution was revealed, including social media chat logs showing that Jang Yoon-gi had told acquaintances since his high school days that he wanted to "kidnap a teenage female with a car and commit a sexual crime."

While accepting all of the prosecution's evidence, Jang Yoon-gi's court-appointed defense attorney explained, "It is not as if the defendant initiated the obscene talk first, but rather that he merely responded to the other person."

The court plans to hold the final sentencing hearing on August 31, conduct an interrogation of the defendant Jang Yoon-gi, hear the prosecution's sentencing recommendation, and then close the arguments.

(Video reporting: Kim Se-kyung | Video editing: Shin Se-eun | Design: Lee Jun-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.