Court to Deliver First Trial Verdict This Afternoon on Hanjin Family's Lee Myung-hee's 'Employee Assault' Charge

Prosecution Seeks 2 Years and 6 Months Imprisonment

Former Chairperson Lee Myung-hee of Ilwoo Foundation. / Photo by Jin-hyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The first trial verdict for Lee Myung-hee, wife of the late Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho, on charges of employee assault will be announced on the 14th.

The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 25-3 (Presiding Judge Kwon Seong-su, Judges Kim Seon-hee and Im Jeong-yeop) will hold the first trial sentencing hearing for Lee, who was indicted on habitual special injury charges, in the afternoon.

Lee was prosecuted for shouting, verbally abusing, and physically assaulting nine employees, including drivers, 22 times from November 2011 to April 2018, causing injuries.

She is accused of throwing pruning shears at a security guard for not properly managing the entrance door at her residence in Pyeongchang-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, and kicking a driver who did not load items into the car on a road in Gugidong, causing injury.

The sentencing hearing, originally scheduled for May 6, was postponed after the prosecution requested a change in the indictment to add assault charges.

At the previous sentencing hearing, the prosecution defined this case as a typical ‘gap-jil’ (abuse of power) incident and increased the original sentence demand from 2 years to 2 years and 6 months.

Separately from this case, Lee was also indicted for illegally employing a Filipino domestic helper and was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 3-year probation in last year’s appeal trial.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.