15-year jail term sought for S Korean professor for beating wife
ISTANBUL
Istanbul prosecutors have asked the court to sentence famous South Korean professor Namkook Lee to nearly 15 years in prison for allegedly beating his 43-year-old wife, Jae Young Lee.
Namkook Lee, 70, is an expert on animation and known as “the man behind” many famous animation movies such as “Scooby-Doo,” “Space Jam” and “Goof Troop.”
According to the file, the husband and wife moved to Istanbul at the beginning of the education season, as Namkook Lee started working for an Istanbul university.
However, tensions rose between the couple as Jae Young Lee, 62, who was unhappy with her husband’s decision to leave her country, started complaining about the move.
On May 26, the couple quarreled at their house in the Beyoğlu district, which turned into an ugly fight with Namkook Lee alleged to have punched his wife strongly in the chest three times.
The next day, Namkook Lee hit his wife in the face while dining at a restaurant. The couple continued the quarrel at home, and Namkook Lee “beat her until she fainted.”
While she was hospitalized, the professor was arrested and transferred to a prison.
Highlighting that Namkook Lee beat his wife while saying, “I am going to kill you,” the prosecutors asked for jail terms between five years and 10 months to 14 years and six months, with charges of “insult,” “threat” and “malicious wounding.”
“I love my wife. I lost myself. I just want to leave Türkiye,” the professor said in his first police testimony.
Jae Young Lee also accused her husband of conducting some “weird actions.”
“I asked him to give me my passport. He tore his T-shirt and started painting his face with lipstick. He started filling his mouth with water on the streets, then sat on that waterhole,” she said.
The husband will appear in court soon, Demirören News Agency reported on June 17.
