Court lifts sentence on South Korean woman who bit off attacker’s tongue

A South Korean court has acquitted a woman previously convicted for defending herself against an act of sexual violence six decades ago.

Busan’s District Court overturned the previous ruling on Wednesday, saying Choi Mal-ja’s actions “constitute justifiable self-defence” under South Korean law.

Choi’s actions at the time are now “deemed an attempt to escape an unjust infringement on her bodily integrity and sexual self-determination”, the court said in a statement.

The ruling overturns Choi’s 1965 conviction, when the court found her actions had “exceeded the reasonable bounds of legally permissible self-defence”.

Choi, who was 19 at the time of the incident, was attacked by a 21-year-old man in the southern town of Gimhae in 1964.

The man pinned her to the ground and repeatedly for