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Thousands of S Koreans demand death for man who raped child
Hundreds of thousands of outraged South Korean Internet users have demanded the death sentence for a man who was jailed for 12 years for raping a 12-year-old girl.
Hundreds of thousands of outraged South Korean Internet users have demanded the death sentence for a man who was jailed for 12 years for raping a 12-year-old girl.
More than 410,000 netizens have signed an Internet petition in the past five days calling for the 57-year-old to be hanged, said the site operator Daum on Thursday.
The man, identified only by his family name Cho, was convicted of beating and raping the girl while she was on her way to school last December.
Apart from mental trauma, she suffered severe internal injuries which her family said would last a lifetime.
The death penalty still exists in South Korea but the country has imposed a moratarium on capital punishment since 1997.
Prosecutors had demanded a life sentence for Cho but the highest court recently ruled that he should serve 12 years.
President Lee Myung-Bak on Wednesday expressed shock at the case and indicated he thought the sentence was too light.
"I think such a person should be permanently separated from our society," Lee was quoted as telling a cabinet meeting.
"The rapist has inflicted a lifelong injury on the child. The 12-year jail term is too light," one Internet petitioner said.
