The Supreme Court has upheld the controversial conviction of a man found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at a restaurant in 2017.
The high court on Thursday sentenced the man, identified only as A, to six months in prison, suspended for two years.
A was accused of grabbing a woman’s bottom when he passed by her at a restaurant in Daejeon on November 26, 2017.
The Supreme Court said it found A guilty after taking into account consistent testimony given by the victim in two previous trials and surveillance footage showing A’s right arm extending toward the victim.
In the first trial on the incident, A was sentenced to six months in prison and was put under court custody. He was later released on bail after being behind bars for 38 days and faced trial without physical detention.
In a second trial in April, A's sentence was adjusted to six months in prison suspended for two years, with the court apparently taking into consideration the severity of the harassment and pleas made by A’s family.
The case came to national prominence after A's wife wrote a petition on the presidential office's website disputing the decision against her husband and calling his sentence excessive.
The petition was signed by more than 330,000 people.