Prosecutors have requested a heavy prison sentence for a Pakistani national indicted for sexually assaulting foreign children nearly two decades ago at an Islamic mosque in Incheon, west of Seoul, judicial officials said Monday.

During a hearing held in mid-July, prosecutors asked the Bucheon branch of the Incheon District Court to sentence the unidentified Pakistani man to 10 years in prison on charges including the rape of minors under the age of 13, according to the officials.

The man is accused of threatening and sexually assaulting two foreign children, then aged 7 and 9, at a mosque in Incheon's Seohae district in September 2008. At the time of the incident, he was teaching the Quran at the mosque.

Prosecutors explained that a complaint in the case was filed belatedly because the victims were too young at the time the assaults occurred. Such delayed reporting has long posed a challenge in child sexual abuse cases, and South Korea has in recent years strengthened its legal framework for such offenses, including a 2019 amendment that abolished the statute of limitations for sex crimes against children under 13, allowing prosecutions of older cases like this one. Under South Korean law, sexual offenses against children under 13 carry some of the country's most severe penalties, with the crime of raping a minor punishable by a minimum of seven years and up to life imprisonment.

The case is being handled by the Bucheon branch of the Incheon District Court, which serves jurisdictions west of Seoul. A ruling in the case has yet to be announced.

Source: The Korea Times