Park Geun-hye Government 'Whitelist' Kim Ki-chun and Cho Yoon-sun Sentencing in Retrial Today

Former Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-chun (left) and former Blue House Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Cho Yoon-sun, who were indicted in the so-called 'whitelist' case [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The retrial results for former Blue House Chief of Staff Kim Ki-chun and former Blue House Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Cho Yoon-sun, who were indicted in the so-called 'white list' case involving illegal support to conservative groups during the Park Geun-hye administration, will be announced on the 26th.

The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 6 (Presiding Judge Oh Seok-jun) will hold the sentencing hearing for the retrial of eight defendants, including former Chief Kim and former Secretary Cho, who were prosecuted on charges such as abuse of authority, in the afternoon. Former Chief Kim and others were prosecuted for allegedly pressuring the Federation of Korean Industries from 2014 to 2016 to provide 6.9 billion won in support to 33 pro-government conservative groups.

The first and second trials sentenced former Chief Kim to 1 year and 6 months in prison, and former Secretary Cho to 1 year in prison with a 2-year suspended sentence. However, unlike the first trial, which did not recognize the abuse of authority charge, the second trial found both abuse of authority and coercion charges guilty. The Supreme Court, however, ruled in February this year that the coercion charges were not valid and remanded the case back to the Seoul High Court.

In the prosecution's closing arguments on the 17th, they requested a 4-year prison sentence for former Chief Kim. In an earlier session, they asked the court to sentence former Secretary Cho to 3 years in prison.

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