From the beginning I found the case involving two GIs that were accused of attempting to rape an off duty female police officer strange. The doubts only continued to build as the case went to trial and culminated with a conviction of both GIs with a judge urging one of the soldiers to lodge an appeal because he was probably unfairly convicted.
Now more details are coming out with the news that one of the convicted GIs was coerced into lying by the Korean prosecutors:
A soldier convicted in July of trying to rape an off-duty policewoman in a public bathroom said Thursday that South Korean prosecutors told him to lie about a second soldier acting as a lookout during the attack in exchange for a lighter sentence.
Sgt. Anthony Q. Basel is appealing his 3 1/2-year sentence for attempted rape. He gave prosecutors a statement soon after the attack that said Pfc. Mark Feldmann, who had spent the day drinking with him in Seoul, was in the bathroom and shouted, “Run!” when a nearby restaurant owner entered the bathroom. Basel gave prosecutors a contradicting statement during a second round of questioning, saying that he didn’t remember if Feldmann was in the bathroom.
During the first hearing in the appeals case on Thursday, South Korean prosecutors said they wouldn’t have told Basel to lie, because the South Korean justice system, unlike the United States, doesn’t have a plea-bargaining system.
Basel responded by saying he thought he would get a lighter sentence if he told prosecutors what he thought they wanted to hear.
Feldmann, who is serving three years for his role in the attempted rape, also is appealing his sentence and has said he is innocent. [Stars & Stripes]
If Basel was coerced into lying by the authorities would it take a stretch of the imagination to assume that the restaurant owner was also coerced into lying when he originally wrote a sworn statement that there was only one man in the restroom and then changed it two days later to seeing two people in the restroom? This case is very dubious and a perfect example of how justice for GIs in Korea can be hard to find.
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5:44 am on October 8th, 2007 1
So you’ll believe a convicted criminal retracting his statement over any South Korean persecutor because he’s an American, and the others are Korean? The prosecutors didn’t coerce him to lie (that’s his version of his excuse). What did they do, threaten him with torture? Almighty jesus. If he was innocent, all he had to was stick with the truth, not take a chance that Korean criminal court will give him a lighter sentence and then cry ‘bad Koreans’ when he didn’t get what he wanted - a special foreigner treatment of slap on the wrist (for he just being a foreigner), that’s world famous in Korea.
6:33 am on October 8th, 2007 2
I’m not saying the SGT is innocent if you would bother reading the links. The PFC is the one that is probably innocent and the Korean prosecutors were able to get the restaurant owner to change his story and the SGT is saying the prosecutors told him to do the same thing.
If this case isn’t dubious than can you explain why the Korean judge highly recommended that the PFC appeal the conviction because of its dubious nature?
10:21 pm on October 8th, 2007 3
“Army Sergeant Coerced into Lying By Korean Prosecutors”
“I’m not saying the SGT is innocent if you would bother reading the links”
If you are not 100% sure about the details of this case, than you should be more carefull with the thinks you write. It gives the assumption that this guy is the victim.
6:38 am on October 9th, 2007 4
The title of my post is 100% accurate about what the SGT said. The issue is not Sthe GT it is the PFC that is in jail.
The SGT claims to have changed his story for the authorities and the restaurant owner changed his story too for the authorities while the victim doesn’t remember seeing the PFC in the room yet the PFC is sitting in jail. The Korean judge even told the PFC at the conclusion of the trial to appeal because the conviction was dubious because of the changed stories. This is all undisputed fact as reported in the Stars & Stripes which if you click on the links you can read.
1:29 pm on October 11th, 2007 5
“So you’ll believe a convicted criminal retracting his statement over any South Korean persecutor because he’s an American, and the others are Korean?”
-Yes. Koreans are liars.
11:03 pm on October 11th, 2007 6
“Yes. Koreans are liars.”
Hahaha !!!! are you sure?
11:15 am on October 12th, 2007 7
Koreans aren’t liars, they just have a hard time telling the truth.
3:00 am on October 26th, 2007 8
I served over two years with Basel in Korea and Iraq! There is no one on this earth who knows what he went through better than I. We saw things that can not be described in words. I am not saying he is inocent, but do not be so quick to judge with out knowing him. War is HELL! He needed help before he ever went to Iraq. Heavy drinking was just one of his battle scars. I will always love him like a brother and will welcome him with open arms. I am sorry for what happened to the woman as I am married with four daughters. I feel responsible in a big way for this. I took him under my wing adn should have gotten him the help he so badly needed.
3:03 am on October 26th, 2007 9
Thank you reading!
6:48 am on October 26th, 2007 10
SGT Basel could very well be a nice guy but it doesn’t change the fact of what he did.
A lot of people including myself have served in Iraq and do not go around sexually assaulting people. Though alcohol appears to be the cause it still doesn’t excuse what he did. He was held accountable for it and his jail term isn’t very long. Hopefully the time in jail will be what he needs to overcome his alcohol problem. It is unfortunate it took such a thing to happen to get him the treatment he needed.
4:27 am on October 28th, 2007 11
Well, yes I agree he may indeed have enough time to over come his problem. I do also hope that people see this, and maybe are more prpared for future cases. I knew he had a problem and didn’t see or hear his silent cries for help. I hope others will not let thier friends slip through the cracks like I did. I will never believe he raped her, because any body who has ever been to Korea knows that females are readily available if you know hat I mean. There never seemed to be a problem I should say in 03-04. Thanks again 4 reading…..peace!
11:19 am on October 28th, 2007 12
He didn’t necessarily rape the woman because she was not penetrated in anyway. It was supposedly an attempted rape.
In my opinion what I think happened was that he was drunk and had to use the restroom and went into a restroom that was used by both sexes. The woman in there may have forgot to lock the door and he walks in locks the door to use the toilet which the female is in and she starts to scream and he panics and grabs her which she takes as someone trying to rape her and fights him off until the restaurant owner opens the door.
At the trial he was to drunk to remember what he did lending creedance to the claims he was trying to rape her.
It all could have been avoided if he wasn’t walking around Seoul drunk.
12:32 pm on January 16th, 2008 13
[...] statement to say he saw Feldman in the restroom. Additionally the Korean prosecutors were linked to trying to coerce Basel into writing a statement saying that Feldman was in the restroom for a lighter [...]
9:52 am on June 24th, 2008 14
[...] statement to say he saw Feldman in the restroom. Additionally the Korean prosecutors were linked to trying to coerce Basel into writing a statement saying that Feldman was in the restroom for a lighter [...]