Students denounced prosecutors’ decision to indict 11 participants in protests against Dongduk Women’s University’s proposed conversion to an engineering program without detaining them, calling the move “over-prosecution.”
On the afternoon of the 11th, the Dongduk Women’s University Student Union held a rally near Hyehwa Station in Jongno District, Seoul, drawing about 500 people, including current students, alumni, members of the student paper’s editorial board, and the mother of one of the charged students.
The union said prosecutors pressed ahead with non-detained indictments against 11 students on charges of obstructing business, refusing to disperse, and damaging property, despite the university’s withdrawal of its complaint and its submission of a petition asking prosecutors not to pursue punishment.
They also accused investigators of effectively halting inquiries into alleged embezzlement of tens of billions of KRW (approximately tens of millions of USD) by the family of Dongduk’s chairman, Jo Won-young, and of allowing nepotistic management to persist. The union said the investigation has been biased by the suspects’ social status and power.
A mother of one of the charged students, identified only as A, said the November 2024 dispute over the engineering conversion “completely destroyed” her daughter’s life. She added that, rather than protecting students, the university fed exaggerated accounts to the media and turned students into targets.
She said she felt momentary relief when the school withdrew its complaint and filed the petition not to pursue punishment, but that her daughter still faces trial over occupying the main administration building. “There is not even the minimal justice I expected in this society,” she said, visibly distraught.
The student union demanded that the university: stop repressing students; lift sanctions on campus media and clubs; guarantee democratic decision-making structures; provide responsible explanation and communication; and halt the engineering conversion.
Prosecutors allege the accused students occupied the main administration building and staged spray-paint protests, damaging university property while opposing the engineering conversion between Nov. 11 and Dec. 3, 2024.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s special investigations unit said the protests did not qualify as offenses that require a victim’s complaint or withdrawal for prosecution to proceed, called the complaints valid, and continued its investigation. On June 24 last year, police referred 22 people, including students, to prosecutors on charges that included obstructing business, refusing to disperse, and property damage.
The Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office indicted 11 of those referred on charges including obstructing business, collective refusal to leave, collective confinement, and property damage on the 25th of last month, and did so without detaining them.
