The Seoul court convicted rapper Nafla and past VIXX band member Ravi for attempting to evade their military service.
On August 10th, Nafla was sentenced to one year in prison for violating the Military Service Act. In addition to serving 120 hours of community service, Ravi was given a one-year jail term with a two-year suspension.
Nafla was charged with fabricating records of attendance after getting appointed to the Seocho-gu Office in Seoul as a social service worker in February 2021. The rapper was additionally accused of trying to get out of the assigned work early on the basis that his depression became worse. It was discovered that Nafla missed 141 days of social work, which were logged as sick days. Two officials from the office were detained for faking daily service reports since they lacked documentation indicating that Nafla’s condition was getting worse. The court also found that Nafla violated the military service requirement while he was on trial for smoking marijuana offence.
Ravi was found guilty of presenting a forged medical record to the Military Manpower Administration while claiming to have epilepsy in an effort to avoid being drafted to serve in the military. In order to obtain a medical exam at the hospital, Ravi allegedly imitated fainting in accordance with the scenario set up by the military service broker. The face diagnosis resulted in an alternative service decision for him.
The court recognised Ravi’s status as a first-time offender and gave him a suspended sentence. This means he will only go to jail if he commits an offence during his two-year probation. The musician apologised on Instagram after the last trial in April:
“I would like to express my sincere apologies to the epileptic patients and their families who must have been hurt by me for rationalising myself and making the wrong choice during this process, as well as to all the military service members who are faithfully fulfilling their duties even at this moment.”
Both Nafla and Ravi are part of the hip-hop record label GROOVL1N, which was founded in 2019 by Ravi himself. The rapper Nafla is a Korean-American rapper who debuted under MKIT Rain in 2016 and is best known for winning the “Show Me the Money 777” contest in 2018.