Actor Oh Yeong-su, 81, has been cleared on appeal nearly four years after he was accused of indecent assault.
On the 11th, the 6-1 Criminal Division of the Suwon District Court overturned the lower court’s ruling and entered a not-guilty verdict for Oh.
Prosecutors had alleged that in August 2017, while staying in Daegu for a stage production, Oh hugged a junior theater troupe member identified as A, and the following month kissed her on the cheek outside her residence.
The accuser filed a police complaint in December 2021, which was initially dismissed. After an appeal, prosecutors in Suwon reopened the case and indicted Oh without detention in November 2022.
At trial, the court found the accuser’s testimony credible and sentenced Oh to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered 40 hours of sex offender treatment. Oh appealed, insisting that a message of apology was misunderstood and that no assault occurred. Prosecutors also appealed, arguing the sentence was too light.
During the appeal, Oh’s side argued that, at the height of his global attention from Netflix’s "Squid Game," he felt pressured by a sudden demand from the accuser’s side and offered only a perfunctory apology, which the first court misread.
In his final statement, Oh told the court, “It’s humiliating to stand here at my age. If my words and actions were wrong, I will accept the consequences,” while maintaining, “I did not believe my conduct was assault. The life I’ve built over 80 years was shattered. Please allow me to return to where I belong.”
Oh rose to worldwide fame in 2021 as Player 001 in Netflix’s "Squid Game" and, in 2022, became the first Korean actor to win a Golden Globe, taking Best Supporting Actor in a Television category. After the allegations surfaced, his projects were halted and he was edited out of planned releases, including the feature "About Family."
Photo: Baik Seung-Chul
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)
