Actor Han Ji-sang. /News1
Musical actor Han Ji-sang again denied the allegations of sexual harassment that arose four years ago and took legal action for defamation.
Law firm Decode, which was in charge of Han Ji-sang’s legal representation, said, “Actor Han Ji-sang withdrew from the musical in October 2023 due to medical staff’s findings that he had extreme anxiety, sleep disorders, and panic disorder.” He added, “At the time, the actor was in a private relationship with a woman. “Regarding the incident that occurred between me and Mr. A, I have been suffering from indiscriminate slander and insults to my personality from some netizens based on speculation and distortion that are different from objective facts,” he said.
Han Ji-sang was caught up in a sexual scandal in 2020. Mr. A, who was a fan of Han Ji-sang, claimed that Han Ji-sang forcibly molested him during a drinking party in the past. Accordingly, Han Ji-sang filed a complaint against Mr. A on charges of attempted blackmail and coercion to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in February 2020, but the prosecution decided not to indict Mr. A.
According to the legal representative, Han Ji-sang had a favorable relationship with Mr. A around 2018 and communicated with him, and during this process, he did not commit an act of harassment against the other person’s will, and this was also confirmed in the police investigation. However, Mr. A is said to have claimed forced harassment in September 2019 and demanded an apology.
Ji-sang Han expressed his apology, but Ji-sang Han requested that Mr. A find a way to compensate, and Ji-sang Han mentioned financial compensation for Mr. A’s mental damage, Ji-sang Han claims. The legal representative said, “The scope of Mr. A’s demands expanded to include open relationships or large amounts of compensation, and the actor who could not endure this only responded to the second-best method of ‘monetary compensation.’”
The legal representative said, “The reason for the investigative agency’s non-indictment is ‘insufficient evidence,’ the concreteness of the threatening expression indicated by Mr. A is somewhat lacking in legal principles, and money may not have been what Mr. A wanted first, and the same value is assessed. He said, “It is by no means because it was acknowledged that the actor first approached the woman who was a fan, sexually assaulted her, or induced her to demand monetary compensation in order to maliciously criticize Mr. A.”
The legal representative said, “Such reckless witch-hunting carried out by some netizens without verifying the facts is a serious violation of personal rights, including freedom of expression. He predicted legal action, saying, “This amounts to coercion.”
Han Ji-sang made his debut through the musical ‘Grease’ in 2005 and was active by appearing in ‘Alta Boys’, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Wandeuk’, ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, and ‘Red’. However, after the sexual harassment controversy, malicious comments continued, and he withdrew from the musical ‘The Devil: Faust’ in October last year.
