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A South Korean man tested the country's newly approved marital rape law, passed in May 2013, by accusing his 40-year-old wife, identified only as Shim, of raping him. The victim, named only Kim, claims she locked him in their house and forced him to have sex with her for 29 hours.
She allegedly committed the act to secure "favorable evidence" that she plans to use in a divorce proceeding, reports the New York Post. The lawsuit makes South Korean history twice with Shin being the first to be indicted since the law was passed two years ago and the accused being a woman.
Yonhap, a South Korean news agency, reports that Shim was indicted on Tuesday, according to prosecutors. The case was filed following investigation by the Seoul Central Prosecutor's Office of Kim's complaint against Shim.
The country's Supreme Court recognized marital rape as a crime when it upheld a lower court's decision to send a man to prison for forcing his wife to have sex with him by threatening her with a weapon. Shin's case could have been the second, but in early 2015, the court found "not guilty" a 45-year-old woman who was accused of attempted rape by her former boyfriend. The woman tied him up and hit him with a hammer. She was not found guilty of marital rape because she told the court she did not plan to rape him while tied up.
What is also unusual here is that the complainant is a man, not a woman as most of the cases of marital rapes cases filed in other countries with similar laws such as the United States, Britain, Germany and France. By 2006, marital rape is considered a prosecutable offense in more than 104 countries, according to the UN.
But there are some countries where partners could legally force their spouses to have sex with them and not be charged criminally. The list includes India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Bahamas, reports The Independent.
