[Anchor]

The third trial for Jang Yoon-gi was held in Gwangju today (the 27th). The parents of the late Lee Chae-won, who appeared as witnesses, asked the court to "permanently isolate Jang Yoon-gi from society."

Reporter Lee Se-hyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

At 10:00 a.m. today, the third trial for "high school girl murder suspect" Jang Yoon-gi took place at the Gwangju District Court.

The parents of the late Lee Chae-won, who was killed by Jang, appeared as witnesses.

In a statement read out in court, Lee's parents said, "We earnestly ask the court to sentence him to death, the maximum penalty under the law, to permanently isolate the perpetrator from society."

They went on to appeal, "We cannot shake off the fear that if the perpetrator returns to society, he might commit the same unfulfilled crime against someone else."

[Kim Moon-seok / Legal representative for the bereaved family of the late Lee Chae-won: My dead daughter can never come back, but if the living perpetrator comes out into the world, it is equivalent to handing down another death sentence to those of us left behind.]

A bystander identified by the surname Ko, who suffered severe injuries from Jang's weapon attack while trying to help Lee, also appeared as a witness.

During the witness interrogation, which was switched to a closed session, Ko reportedly testified about the situation at the time, saying, "Jang calmly asked me to 'call 119 instead,' and the moment I looked at my phone to make the call, he suddenly attacked my neck."

Additional evidence submitted by the prosecution was revealed during this trial, including social media chat logs showing that Jang had told acquaintances since his high school days that he "wanted to kidnap an underage female by car and commit a sex crime."

While accepting all of the prosecution's evidence, Jang's court-appointed defense attorney explained, "It does not look like the defendant took the initiative to make obscene remarks, but rather that he merely responded to the other person."

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

(Video by Kim Se-kyung | Video Editing by Shin Se-eun | Graphics by Lee Jun-ho)