S. Korean man gets jail term for forcibly taking father to mental institute

(Herald DB)

A 43-year-old man was sentenced to one year and six months in prison for forcibly taking his father to a mental institute, while his younger brother got a suspended jail term for helping him, local court said Wednesday.

Incheon District Court said in its verdict that even though the victim owned a gun, the defendants failed to submit evidence to prove that the victim was a violent person. The court added that the victim's condition did not appear severe enough to justify medical detention.

"The victim did own a gun but it was purchased 40 years ago, and it was unclear if it even worked. When the victim was forcibly moved to the institute, the gun had already been confiscated by the police," the court said.

The defendants are accused of forcibly taking their father to a local mental institute in April 2021, injuring him in the process. At the hospital, they then falsely told doctors he was violent in order to have their father admitted there.

The investigation found that the father's dispute with his wife led to the siblings planning to have their father locked up at the institute.

When their father set out to visit his wife in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, the siblings reported to the police that he was going to assault their mother. When police confiscated the father's gun and left, the defendants called a private ambulance and moved their father to the hospital.

The victim was diagnosed with unspecified bipolar disorder, a type of bipolar disorder in which the symptoms do not meet the criteria for other types of the disease, and was admitted. But a hospital's committee on suitability of the admission decided that he was to be discharged, and he was sent home in May of 2021.

The defendants claimed that the victim was violent and had carried the gun around in his car to threaten their mother, but the court dismissed their claims and convicted them of illegal confinement against a lineal ascendant.

By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)