Arsonist in his 40s sentenced to prison for setting fire to someone else's mountain and insisting it was "not a forest"

A man in his 40s who set fire to someone else's mountain but claimed that the area where he set the fire was not a forest under the law was eventually isolated from society.

The Chuncheon District Court Criminal Division 2 (Chief Judge Kim Seong-rae) announced on the 8th that it sentenced Mr. A (46), who was indicted on charges of violating the Forest Protection Act, to three years in prison.

Mr. A was put on trial on charges of lighting an envelope on fire with a lighter in a forest in Chuncheon in February last year and burning about 150㎡ of the surrounding forest.

As a result of the investigation, Mr. A, while receiving hospital treatment for mental illness, went out and committed the crime while under the influence of alcohol.

He had previously been sentenced to prison three times for arson crimes.

Mr. A denied the charges in court, saying, “The forest where the fire was set does not constitute a forest under the law.”

However, the court judged that it was a forest as defined by the Forest Protection Act, considering that bushes and trees were growing in the forest where Mr. A set the fire, the surrounding land was also covered with fallen leaves and branches, and the fire spread to the surrounding trees.

The court criticized the crime, saying, "Forest arson not only causes social losses by burning precious forest resources, but also risks serious damage to the lives, bodies, and property of innocent others, so there is a need to severely punish them."

He then explained the reason for the sentencing, saying, "The sentence was decided based on the fact that citizens who witnessed the fire scene quickly extinguished the fire and fortunately the damage area was not large, and that the defendant's mental health appears to have had some influence on the crime."