Supreme Court: Calling Someone "Human Trash" During an Argument Not a Criminal Insult

Guilty Verdicts in First and Second Trials Overturned by Supreme Court and Sent Back for Retrial

Supreme Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

The Supreme Court has ruled that using the term "human trash" during an argument cannot be punished as criminal insult unless it is enough to significantly damage the other person's social reputation.

On September 15, according to the legal community, the Supreme Court's Division 2 (Presiding Justice Park Young-jae) recently overturned a lower court ruling that had found Mr. A guilty of insult and related charges, sending the case back to the Daegu District Court for retrial.

Mr. A, a YouTuber and journalist, was indicted on charges of saying "you're human trash" to Mr. B in October 2023 in a hospital room where other patients could hear.

Mr. A was further accused of defamation for erecting a banner containing false information about a police officer affiliated with the Uiwang Police Station on a road near Uiwang Seoul Detention Center in Gyeonggi Province during April and May 2021.

The first trial found Mr. A guilty of all charges and sentenced him to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years. The second trial maintained the guilty verdict but reduced the sentence to 8 months in prison, also suspended for two years.

However, the Supreme Court did not accept this. The bench stated, "If an expression is merely discourteous or breaches etiquette, or is an abstract or mild insult that might make someone uncomfortable, but is not a hateful slur or sufficiently odious as to seriously infringe on someone's personality rights or strip away their dignity, it does not meet the criteria for criminal insult."

The court added, "If an expression arises from a temporary emotional outburst, unless it constitutes discriminatory or hateful speech based on gender, race, disability, or sexual orientation, caution should be exercised in intervening through the exercise of state penal power under the crime of insult."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.