Supreme Court upholds life sentence given to Lee Eun-hae

Lee Eun-hae was sentenced to life imprisonment for drowning her husband to earn a life insurance payout of 800 million won, according to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court's Division One upheld the earlier life sentence given by the lower court to Lee, a 32-year-old woman, for murder and other accusations on Thursday. The court also upheld the lower court’s 30-year imprisonment given to Cho Hyun-soo, a 31-year-old man with whom Lee had an affair and who turned out to be an accomplice. The ruling ordered the use of electronic tracker devices to Lee and Cho for 20 years.

However, the Supreme Court as well as the lower courts did not conclude that Lee was involved in directly murdering her husband surnamed Yoon, who died at the age of 39, through gaslighting or psychological manipulation. The prosecution argued that she directly caused her husband, who was presumably manipulated psychologically by his wife, to dive four meters from a cliff and consequently drown in Yongso Valley in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province in June 2019, which thus constitutes a direct killing act. However, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling that not saving the drowning husband on purpose is considered murder by omission.


jej@donga.com