An appeals court has upheld a three-year prison term for a salt farm operator who made a worker with a severe intellectual disability labor for a decade while withholding more than 96 million won ($67,000) in wages. The operator's younger brother and an official at a nursing hospital, both indicted for personally spending money from the victim's bank account, received suspended prison sentences.
The Gwangju District Court's Criminal Division 2, presided over by Chief Judge Kim Jong-seok, on the 14th sentenced the salt farm operator, a 59-year-old identified as A, to three years in prison in the appeals trial, the same term handed down by the lower court. The court dismissed appeals from both the defendants and the prosecution. A had been indicted on charges including quasi-fraud and violation of the Act on Welfare of Persons with Disabilities.
A was sent to trial on charges of making B, a 65-year-old with a severe intellectual disability, work at a salt farm in Sinan County, South Jeolla Province (Jeollanam-do), from April 2014 to August 2024, while withholding more than 96 million won in wages.
A's younger brother, 58, and an official, 63, at the nursing hospital where B had temporarily stayed were also indicted for personally spending money from B's bank account. As in the first trial, they were sentenced to 10 months in prison suspended for two years and one year and six months in prison suspended for two years, respectively.
The court found that the victim had been in a state of mental and physical incapacity and that the defendants had exploited that condition. It rejected arguments that some defendants had not taken part in certain offenses, as well as claims that the victim's statements lacked admissibility and probative value. The court said the lower court's guilty verdict was sound and that the sentences it imposed could not be considered unjust enough to overturn.
The case came to light after a comprehensive survey of labor conditions conducted across salt farms in Sinan County in 2023 revealed the long-running exploitation of a worker with a disability.
A had earlier been punished separately in connection with the case for violating the Labor Standards Act. Prosecutors at the time split off and indicted only the Labor Standards Act violation, for which the statute of limitations was approaching, and A received a 3 million won fine suspended for one year in that case.