Special Prosecutor Requests 6-Year Prison Sentence for Kim Kyung-soo in Appeal Trial... Court to Deliver Verdict in Early November

Gyeongnam Province Governor Kim Kyung-soo is heading to the courtroom to attend the continuation of the appeal trial held at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 3rd, responding to questions from the press.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 2 (Presiding Judge Ham Sang-hoon), which is handling the appeal trial of Gyeongnam Governor Kim Kyung-soo's 'presidential election public opinion manipulation' case, concluded the trial procedure that lasted for one and a half years with the closing arguments on the 3rd. The court decided to deliver the verdict on November 6.

On this day, the special prosecution requested a total prison sentence of 6 years during the closing arguments held at the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 2 (Presiding Judge Ham Sang-hoon) for Governor Kim. This included 3 years and 6 months imprisonment for the charge of manipulating online comments and 2 years and 6 months imprisonment for violating the Public Official Election Act by proposing the position of Consul General in Osaka, Japan, to the Druking side. This was the same sentence request as stated in the closing arguments held once last year. The trial had been concluded in November last year but was resumed based on the court's decision. The special prosecution stated, "During the trial, it was clearly revealed that the defendant illegally intervened in the 2017 presidential election and the 2018 local elections," and added, "Serious illegal acts affecting public opinion were uncovered, and the related charges were sufficiently proven."

On the other hand, the defense argued, "The special prosecution fills in parts of the case where objective facts are not proven with the testimony of Kim Dong-won, but Kim Dong-won made false claims to benefit his own investigation and trial," and requested, "Please make a wise and reasonable judgment through a thorough review in accordance with the basic principles of criminal procedure law." Governor Kim also stated in his final statement, "When I think about why Kim Dong-won involved me in this case, it seems he created the King Crab tool out of necessity and judged that making an accomplice would be advantageous to himself," and added, "The special prosecution's claim that I conspired illegally with people I met only twice goes against common sense."

Earlier, the special prosecution and Governor Kim's side clashed over the so-called 'comment reverse operation' during the trial. The comment reverse operation refers to the King Crab tool developed by Druking to create a favorable public opinion for President Moon Jae-in, which instead clicked 'like' on negative comments about President Moon. The more reverse operations there are, the lower the possibility of collusion between Governor Kim and Druking. The special prosecution argued on this day, "The proportion of reverse operations among the entire operations is less than 0.7%," and claimed, "Given the structure of King Crab, mistakes and errors were inevitable." In response, Governor Kim's side countered, "There are many omissions in the reverse operation content confirmed by the special prosecution," and questioned, "It is doubtful how sincerely they verified it." The court asked Governor Kim's defense to submit an opinion statement related to the reverse operation by early October, one month before the verdict.

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