Police have booked a YouTuber and a doctor on murder charges as part of an investigation into a video claiming that a 36-week-old fetus was aborted.
In June, a YouTube video stirred public controversy when a woman, who introduced herself as in her 20s, filmed a vlog about getting an abortion in the 36th week of her pregnancy and claimed that she did not know about her pregnancy until that stage.
In response, the health ministry filed a complaint with police, accusing the woman and the doctor who performed the abortion on charges of murder.
Police have since sent a search and seizure warrant to Google, the headquarters of YouTube, but when Google refused to provide information, they analyzed the YouTube video and identified the YouTuber and the hospital that conducted the surgery.
The YouTuber, identified as a woman in her 20s, underwent two rounds of police questioning and admitted to getting an abortion.
“We are in the process of analyzing the seized evidence, but we found no signs that the YouTube vid
eo was fabricated,” a Seoul Metropolitan Police official said during a regular press briefing.
“We still have to confirm through medical evaluation what week the fetus was at the time, and whether its death was due to abortion, murder or stillbirth,” the official said, adding the number of those booked can increase as the investigation goes on.
The fetus was found to be no longer alive, according to police.
Meanwhile, police are also looking into violations of the Medical Service Act after finding that CCTVs were not installed inside the hospital.
Hospitals are required to install surveillance cameras in operating rooms and record surgery procedures at the request of patients under a revised law that came into effect in September last year.
They also plan to interrogate an acquaintance of the YouTuber who allegedly helped her find the hospital to receive the abortion.
Source: Yonhap News Agency