South Korea: pastor convicted after fatally pressing on a congregant's abdomen during a healing prayer for schizophrenia
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Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
pastor claiming the ability to heal mental illness through 안수기도 (laying-on-of-hands prayer)
Organization
No organization assigned
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
The victim was subjected to physical force explicitly framed as a cure for her diagnosed mental illness, administered by a pastor whose claimed healing authority substituted for medical treatment and left her pinned beneath him as her injuries became fatal.
- Spiritual healing or treatment
- Pastoral or clerical authority
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2016-04-17 · conviction and sentence
Gwangju District Court, Criminal Division 11, South Korea. Pastor 'Oh,' 48, believing he could cure a 38-year-old woman's schizophrenia through laying-on-of-hands prayer, laid her on the floor of a house in Gwangju's Buk-gu district, sat on her abdomen and pressed forcefully with his palms; she died of peritonitis and intestinal hemorrhage caused by the pressure. The Gwangju District Court convicted him of assault resulting in death and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- claimed spiritual authority to cure diagnosed schizophrenia through physical prayer rather than medical treatment
- physically pinning and pressing on the victim's abdomen while she was laid on the floor, unable to remove herself from the ritual
Cited record
Sources
- legal press court reporting sentencing judgment Lawtimes.co.kr, legal-press report on the Gwangju District Court conviction for assault resulting in death arising from a healing-prayer session for schizophrenia.
Reports the healing-prayer framing, the physical pressure applied to the victim's abdomen, the fatal peritonitis and intestinal hemorrhage, the conviction, and the three-year sentence.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.
- Source and tier basis
- https://www.lawtimes.co.kr/ Corpus classification: legal-press-court-reporting; evidentiary role: sentencing-judgment. SHA-256 f4cc170d387c3b1fb842da04f4e6a47e520902e04f157bb98f303492672e5580
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-20 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
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