“Squid Game” star Oh Young-soo was found guilty on Friday of sexual misconduct after the South Korean actor was charged with assaulting a woman in 2017, court officials announced.
The 79-year-old actor was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, the Seongnam Branch of South Korea’s Suwon District Court told the AFP. He was also ordered to complete 40 hours of classes on sexual violence, Reuters reported.
The victim’s own records of the assault and her claims are “consistent … and appear to be statements that cannot be made without actually experiencing them,” Judge Jeong Yeon-ju concluded, per CBS News.
Outside the courtroom, Oh, who has repeatedly denied the allegations, said he planned to appeal the ruling. He has seven days to do so.
In 2021, an unidentified actress accused Oh of touching her inappropriately on multiple occasions in August and September 2017. They were on tour for a play at the time, the New York Times reported. He previously told South Korean cable channel JTBC that he only held the woman’s hands to “show her the way” during a walk around a lake.
Oh was charged with sexual assault the following year, just as Netflix dystopian thriller “Squid Game” peaked in popularity. Within a month of its release in the fall of 2021, it raked in a whopping 111 million viewers, securing its spot as the streamer’s most-watched show of all time.
Oh nabbed a Golden Globe in 2022 for his portrayal of the seemingly vulnerable Contestant 001, making him the first person from South Korea to win the category of best supporting actor in a series. His performance in the mega hit also earned him an Emmy nomination in the same category.
While “Squid Game” skyrocketed Oh to global fame, he’d also been one of South Korea’s most renowned stage actors, appearing in hundreds of plays since 1968.
Womenlink, a women’s rights group in South Korea, praised the ruling with a post on X and encouraged Oh to apologize to the victim.
“The defendant resembles other offenders of sexual violence in theatre in the past who tried to cover up their sexual violence as ‘favor’ and ‘friendship,’” the group said.
Oh was not included in the announced cast for “Squid Game’s” second season, which is set to be released later this year.
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