Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea · 2020

South Korea: pastor convicted after fatal 'laying-on-of-hands' exorcism prayer on a fasting congregant

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pastor conducting 안수기도 (laying-on-of-hands prayer) claimed to expel demons from a congregant seeking counseling

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

The victim had come to the pastor for counseling; the pastor's claimed authority to diagnose and expel 'demons' produced a directive to fast, then a restrained physical assault reframed as prayer, with three congregants holding him down while the pastor struck and strangled him.

Exorcism or deliverance
Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2020-02-07 · conviction and sentence, upheld on appeal

Suwon District Court, Criminal Division 11, South Korea. A pastor identified only as 'A,' during a laying-on-of-hands exorcism prayer session on Feb. 7, 2020, struck a 24-year-old man (on leave from military service and seeking counseling for service-related stress, and made to fast for days beforehand to 'expel demons') with a cross and strangled him, while his wife and a second pastor couple restrained the victim's limbs. The Suwon District Court convicted the pastor of assault resulting in death (폭행치사) and sentenced him to four years' imprisonment; the Suwon High Court upheld the conviction and sentence on appeal in February 2021.

Appellate history

2021-02-01

Suwon High Court upheld the conviction and four-year sentence.

Documented coercion mechanisms

directing a distressed congregant to fast for days before the ritual as spiritual preparation
physical restraint of the victim's limbs by the pastor's wife and a second pastor couple during the ritual
striking and strangling the victim while framing the violence as expelling demons

Primary record

Sources

legal press court reporting sentencing judgment Lawtimes.co.kr, legal-press report on the Suwon District Court conviction for assault resulting in death arising from a laying-on-of-hands exorcism prayer session.: Reports the fasting instruction, the restraint by three accomplices, the strangulation and striking with a cross, the conviction for 폭행치사, and the four-year sentence.
national newspaper court reporting contemporaneous reporting Kyunghyang Shinmun (khan.co.kr), contemporaneous South Korean press report on the case.: Corroborates the facts of the exorcism-prayer assault and the criminal prosecution.

Related record

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