[News Today] COURT RULING ON GRAVE DESECRATION

[LEAD]
The Supreme Court ruled that cremating remains without the chief mourner's consent, such as the eldest son, is 'grave desecration.' The court cited that managing and disposing of human remains must be performed at the consent of the person who holds ancestral rites.

[REPORT]
The Supreme Court has ruled that excavating graves and disposing of remains without permission from the relative who takes care of a given grave or has the right to decide what to do with it is an act of grave desecration [grave site vandalism].

The court has dismissed the original sentence of four months in jail suspended for one year for excavating and damaging ancestors' remains, and sent the case back to the Daejeon District Court.

The convicted person excavated the graves of his great grandfather and grandparents and cremated their remains without consulting with his relatives including the family's eldest grandson, who holds ancestral worship rites, when selling a plot of land with his ancestors' remains in 2020.

The first and second trials found the man guilty of excavating his ancestors' graves, but not guilty of damaging their remains.

The verdicts said as long as the remains were enshrined in line with proper religious procedures and customs with all respects, it would be difficult to rule that the remains were vandalized.

However, the Supreme Court's ruling was different.

The judges said managing and disposing of human remains must be performed at the consent of the person who holds ancestral rites.

They said that physically modifying and damaging remains without consent must be viewed as an act of vandalism that hurts grieving emotions.

The Supreme Court said the original verdict, which dismissed vandalism due to the mere fact that the remains were enshrined in line with a legitimate cremation procedure, misinterpreted the law, and that it should be annulled and the case must be deliberated from scratch.