Accused of groping someone at a club in Seoul — I'm a D-2 student and my university has already been contacted. What happens now?

This is a serious charge in Korea and it is also, in the form you describe, one that is investigated every weekend in Hongdae — a drunk encounter, a complaint, CCTV, and two statements that do not match. The realistic outcomes for a first-time case of this kind range from a closed file to a fine or suspended sentence; prison for a single, non-violent, contested club incident is not the typical result. But three things around the criminal case can do more damage than the case itself: your university, your visa, and an unrepresented attempt to "apologize and settle." Handle those with the same care as the interview.

What this is under Korean law

The offense alleged is indecent assault by force (강제추행, gangje chuhaeng) under Article 298 of the Criminal Act — up to ten years' imprisonment or a fine of up to KRW 15 million. Korean courts read "force" broadly; an unwanted touch that is itself the act can satisfy it. Since 2013 this is not an offense that the victim's complaint controls: a settlement (합의, hapui) does not end the case, though it weighs heavily in the prosecutor's and the court's decisions. Intoxication is not a defense and, in sex offense cases, is not treated as mitigation.

A conviction, even with a suspended sentence, brings registration of personal information (신상정보 등록, sinsang jeongbo deungnok) under the Act on Special Cases Concerning Sexual Crimes, for a period of years, and can bring employment restrictions in child- and youth-related institutions. Those consequences apply to foreign nationals.

How the process works in Korea

The police are assembling the complainant's statement, CCTV from the club, the staff who intervened, and your statement from that night. Your second interview is where they test your account against the footage. They then either refer the case to the prosecutor (송치, songchi) or close it (불송치, bulsongchi). The prosecutor decides between indictment, a summary fine, a suspension of indictment (기소유예, giso yuye), or nothing. In contested cases the footage usually decides; where it shows nothing more than close dancing, files close.

Do not contact the complainant. In Korean practice, direct contact after a sex-offense complaint is read as pressure on the victim, and it is one of the grounds on which prosecutors seek detention. Settlement, if it is pursued at all, is done through counsel and only when the evidence picture is clear.

Your situation as a foreign national

Three things. First, a departure suspension (출국정지, chulguk jeongji) is requested readily in sex-offense investigations of foreign nationals; assume one may exist and confirm before booking any travel. Second, you are entitled to an interpreter at every stage — insist on one, and have your first statement reviewed by a lawyer before the second interview, because consistency between the two is what the investigator will examine. Third, your status. A D-2 depends on enrollment; a university may apply its own disciplinary rules independently of the criminal outcome, and loss of enrollment has immigration consequences. A conviction is also a fact the Immigration Office weighs, and sex offenses appear among the grounds for deportation review. Those decisions are made by the university and the Immigration Office, not the criminal court, and we do not predict them. MEGA X handles the criminal case; where it affects your status, we coordinate with an immigration specialist as part of your defense.

On the university email: the police contacting a school to confirm enrollment and address is routine and is not a report of guilt. Go to the meeting; say that a matter is under investigation, that you are represented, and that you will cooperate with the university's process; do not describe the incident. Ask what the police actually asked.

What to do now, and what not to do

Do not attend the second interview alone. Do not message the complainant or anyone who might relay to her. Do not delete anything from your phone. Write down, privately, everything you remember and every person who was with you; friends who saw the dancing are witnesses. Prepare your account with your lawyer before the interview, and postpone any travel until the departure question is answered.

From a former police investigator's perspective

In club cases, investigators are weighing three things: what the footage shows, whether the complainant's account is consistent across her statements, and whether the suspect's account is consistent with his first one. They are not weighing how sorry you are. A drunk foreign student who came in at 5 a.m., said "I don't remember," and then gives a second statement that fills in details he did not have the first time has created the inconsistency that closes the case against him. A represented suspect whose second statement is careful, consistent and anchored to the footage is the file that closes.

Two weeks in is early enough. Contact us before the interview date, not after — text consultation or +82-2-522-3959.

— Hyeonghwan Chon, Managing Partner, MEGA X Law Firm Korea