KB News Desk
Eleven Dongduk Women’s University students pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges stemming from a 2024 campus occupation against the school’s proposed transition to coeducation, arguing that their actions did not constitute the crimes alleged by prosecutors.
The students were indicted on charges including property damage, obstruction of business and jointly refusing to comply with orders to leave university buildings. Their trial opened Thursday at the Seoul Northern District Court.
Prosecutors alleged that the students occupied parts of the campus for 24 days between November and December 2024 and spray-painted slogans across university buildings and facilities.
One defendant, surnamed Lee, was additionally charged with unlawful confinement committed jointly with others. She allegedly prevented a university employee from leaving the president’s office by using a broomstick to block the door.
All 11 defendants pleaded not guilty.
Their attorneys argued that it was difficult to conclude that university employees’ work had been obstructed. Even if some disruption occurred, they said, the defendants had neither used coercive force nor intended to interfere with university operations.
The defense also challenged the charge of refusing to leave, saying the students were not inside the university’s main building during the period specified in the indictment and had not received a formal order from the school to leave.
Most defendants argued that they had cleaned the occupied area, managed supplies or briefly visited the site rather than remaining there to take part in the occupation.
The students acknowledged spray-painting university facilities, including the lobby and walls of the main building, but denied that the acts amounted to property damage.
They argued that the graffiti had not impaired the value or utility of the facilities.
Under Korean law, property damage can be established when an act impairs the utility of another person’s property, even if the property is not physically destroyed.
Dongduk Women’s University filed a police complaint against 21 students, estimating that the occupation had caused about 4.6 billion won ($3.1 million) in damage. It later withdrew the complaint and submitted a statement saying it did not want the students punished.
Police continued the investigation because property damage and obstruction of business can be prosecuted regardless of whether an alleged victim wants punishment.
Police referred 22 people to prosecutors in June 2025. Prosecutors indicted 11 of them in March this year.
