By Many of you may remember the drunken beer bottle altercation in Uijongbu that occurred this past July. Well the soldier involved was tried in a Korean court and plead guilty to injuring the Korean national with the beer bottle:
A South Korean prosecutor is seeking a five-year jail term for a U.S. soldier accused of breaking a beer bottle across a Uijeongbu chef’s face.
Pfc. Anthony Walker Jr., 20, who is based at Camp Red Cloud, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault in the Uijeongbu District Court on Tuesday, court official Park Sun-mi said.
The charges stemmed from a July 2 attack in which Walker smashed a beer bottle across the face of Cho Su-whan, 34.
The South Korean government is granted primary jurisdiction in crimes committed by U.S. military community members while off-duty as outlined by the Status of Forces Agreement that governs the legal status of the U.S. military here.
A five year jail sentence seems pretty steep when I have seen the ROK’s give lighter sentences for more serious offenses. However, this soldier’s case is highly publicized so the Korean court may slam him just to make an example of him that the Korean courts are tough on GI crime. My best guess is that he does 1-2 years in jail.
However the Korean public perception about the SOFA Agreement will not change though because the Korean public will still read articles like this and think that all GI’s can commit all the crimes they want, get away with it, and fly home. Not in PFC Walker’s case, it looks like the only place he will be going is the Choenan correctional facility.
You can read more on this from Nomad
