A former mountain fire watcher in Namwon, South Korea, convicted of setting six fires after failing to secure employment, had his prison sentence reduced from two years and six months to two years on appeal, Seoul Shinmun reported.
The Gwangju High Court’s Jeonju branch Criminal Division 1, presided over by Judge Jung Moon-kyung, delivered the ruling on December 6, overturning the previous sentence handed down to the 58-year-old defendant, identified only by his surname A. The defendant faced charges under the Forest Disaster Prevention Act alongside property destruction.
Court records show the defendant worked as a municipal fire watcher in Namwon from 2016 through 2025. Following his rejection in the recruitment, A targeted local fields and agricultural land between February 8 and February 15, driving around in a vehicle and tossing burning tissues out of the window to ignite six separate fires.
On March 8, the defendant escalated his campaign against the monitoring program by scattering screws in front of the vehicle belonging to an active fire watcher, identified as B, which punctured the tires and ruined the wheels.
During his initial trial, A received a sentence of two years and six months in prison. He appealed the judgment by arguing diminished mental capacity at the time of the offenses.
The appellate court rejected that defense. Judges noted that the defendant operated his vehicle normally before and after the fires and offered detailed, specific accounts of his methods and motivations during police interrogations, leaving no basis to conclude he lacked the ability to understand or control his actions.
However, the panel adjusted the punishment downward after weighing mitigating factors. The court observed that the fires caused no human casualties, the defendant expressed remorse, he reached a settlement with the victim of the vehicle property damage, and several owners of the affected woodlands expressed a desire not to see him punished further.
Fire Watcher Recruitment Rejection Motivated Six Field Blazes
The criminal case stems directly from municipal employment decisions in Namwon, where seasonal fire surveillance positions serve as a primary line of defense against forest blazes.
Investigators established that the defendant carried out the arson attacks sequentially across a single week in February as retaliation for losing his job. By driving through rural districts and dropping lit paper tissues onto dry grass and crops, A created multiple localized emergencies that required emergency response resources.
The subsequent attack involving screws targeting a fellow worker’s vehicle added property destruction charges to the initial arson indictment under the Forest Disaster Prevention Act.
Appeal Court Rejects Mental Impairment Defense
In seeking leniency, the defense pointed to psychological distress surrounding the job loss to argue for a reduction under diminished capacity provisions.
The appellate judges dismissed this claim entirely. The bench emphasized that purposeful planning and coherent post-offense behavior demonstrated clear cognitive functioning.
Despite rejecting the mental state defense, the high court shaved six months off the original prison term. The decision relied on the absence of injuries, restitution made to the vehicle owner, and leniency requests submitted by a portion of the targeted landowners.
The case concludes the appellate review for the former municipal worker, locking in a two-year prison sentence for the series of retaliatory fires.
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