Daughter urges life sentence for husband accused of killing her mother, putting body in suitcase

A woman urged the court to sentence her husband to life imprisonment, testifying that he brutally beat her mother to death before disposing of the body in a suitcase.

The woman, surnamed Choi, testified as a witness during a hearing at the Daegu District Court on Thursday in the trial of Cho Jae-bok, who has been indicted and detained on charges of fatally beating his mother-in-law before disposing of her body in a travel suitcase.

"I hope he receives life imprisonment, and I want to get a divorce as soon as possible," she said. Throughout her testimony, Choi mostly referred to her husband only as "that man" rather than by name.

During her testimony, she described Cho's abuse, which she said began after they registered their marriage, as well as the events on the day of the crime.

"When we lived in Gyeongsan, he only hit me, but after we moved to Daegu, he started beating my mother, too," Choi said. "He picked fights over everyday things such as cleaning or table manners. He threatened to kill us if we didn't bring him money and installed home security cameras inside the apartment to monitor us so we couldn't run away."

Describing the day of the killing on March 17, Choi said, "That man beat my mother so severely that she could no longer walk or speak on her own, and he dragged her back into the bathroom and continued beating her."

Choi added, "He beat her thousands of times, much longer and far more brutally than usual."

She also testified that Cho prevented her from reporting the incident.

"I was so worried that I even checked whether my mother was still breathing, but Cho Jae-bok stopped me from reporting it because he was afraid the abuse would be discovered," Choi said.

During the proceedings, prosecutors stated that financial conflict was a key motive behind the crime. They submitted the victim's autopsy report as well as additional evidence alleging that Cho had taken out loans and opened mobile phone accounts using bank accounts and personal information belonging to his wife and mother-in-law.

"The defendant forced his mother-in-law to borrow money from people she knew, showing that financial reasons were closely linked to the motive for the crime," the prosecutor said.

Cho denied the allegations.

"I had permission to use both my wife's and mother-in-law's identities and bank accounts," Cho said. "They also told me to open the mobile phone accounts, and I paid the bills myself."

Cho has been indicted on allegations of beating his 54-year-old mother-in-law to death over an extended period at an officetel in Jung District, Daegu, in March. He then allegedly placed her body in a suitcase and abandoned it near the Sincheon Stream in Chilseong-dong of Buk District, Daegu.

BY KO SEUNG-PYO [[email protected]]