Captain Used Abusive Language Against Superior in Office... Supreme Court: "Cannot Be Punished for Insulting a Superior"

"Only a Few Heard or Passed By...
No Potential for Repetition or Dissemination"

The Supreme Court has ruled that a soldier who referred to his superior officer and made remarks such as, "If I weren't a soldier, I would have hit him," as well as other derogatory remarks and abusive language, cannot be punished for the offense of insulting a superior officer.

Yonhap News Agency

According to the legal community on the 17th, the Supreme Court's Third Division, presided over by Justice Lee Sook-Yeon, recently overturned the lower court's verdict sentencing Captain A to one year in prison with two years of probation on charges of insulting a superior officer and assault, and remanded the case to the Seoul High Court for retrial.

Captain A was brought to trial on charges of insulting a superior officer after allegedly referring to Major B in an administrative office of his military unit, with about four other soldiers present in November 2023, and making remarks such as, "He's an XX," and, "He acts like an XX toward me even though he doesn't even know how the company operates." In February of the following year, Captain A was also accused of grabbing C by the collar and assaulting him within the unit.

Both the first and second trial courts found Captain A guilty of some of his insulting remarks toward a superior, as well as assault, sentencing him to one year in prison, suspended for two years.

However, the Supreme Court did not uphold these rulings.

Article 64, Paragraph 2 of the Military Criminal Act stipulates that "a person who insults a superior officer by publicly posting a document, drawing, or idol, or by delivering a speech or other similarly public means, shall be subject to imprisonment or confinement for up to three years."

The Supreme Court stated, "The offense of insulting a superior officer is established only when the act involves publicly posting a document, drawing, or idol, or making a speech or otherwise expressing the insult by a method as public as those means."

The court further added, "In Captain A's case, the remarks were merely heard by a few soldiers who were working or passing by, and there is no indication that they were delivered unilaterally and publicly, or expressed in a manner likely to be repeated or disseminated to numerous soldiers, either in physical or virtual spaces."

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