ID :
187361
Thu, 06/09/2011 - 05:56
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Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/187361
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Arsonist of ancient Buddhist temple gets jail term
BUSAN (Yonhap) - A local court sentenced a South Korean man to five years in jail for last year's arson attack on a 1,300-year-old Buddhist temple in the southern port city of Busan, court officials said Thursday.
The 43-year-old defendant surnamed Lee was accused of burning down a wooden gate of Beomeo Temple on Dec. 15, causing property damage estimated at 1 billion won (US$923,000).
Lee was also charged with causing two forest fires near the temple, destroying the entrance of a museum inside the temple and damaging the temple's drum earlier that month.
"He deserves strict punishment because his crime of burning the forest and the temple's old wooden building was very dangerous and caused huge losses," Judge Kim Dong-yun of the Busan District Court said in the verdict.
Beomeo Temple was built in 678 during the Silla Kingdom (BC 57-AD 935) and is one of the three major temples in Korea's southeastern region along with Haein Temple and Tongdo Temple.
The destroyed gate Cheonwangmun (The Gate for the Heavenly King) is one of the temple's major architectural structures that honor the four mythical kings who each govern one of the directions -- north, south, east and west -- of heaven.
The 43-year-old defendant surnamed Lee was accused of burning down a wooden gate of Beomeo Temple on Dec. 15, causing property damage estimated at 1 billion won (US$923,000).
Lee was also charged with causing two forest fires near the temple, destroying the entrance of a museum inside the temple and damaging the temple's drum earlier that month.
"He deserves strict punishment because his crime of burning the forest and the temple's old wooden building was very dangerous and caused huge losses," Judge Kim Dong-yun of the Busan District Court said in the verdict.
Beomeo Temple was built in 678 during the Silla Kingdom (BC 57-AD 935) and is one of the three major temples in Korea's southeastern region along with Haein Temple and Tongdo Temple.
The destroyed gate Cheonwangmun (The Gate for the Heavenly King) is one of the temple's major architectural structures that honor the four mythical kings who each govern one of the directions -- north, south, east and west -- of heaven.
