Former Gangnam District Mayor Shin Yeon-hee's Supreme Court Verdict on 'Moon Jae-in Defamation'... Fines in 1st and 2nd Trials

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court's final ruling on former Seoul Gangnam District Mayor Shin Yeon-hee, who was indicted for spreading false information about President Moon Jae-in, is expected. Shin was found guilty in both the first and second trials and was sentenced to a fine.

On the 21st, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Cho Jae-yeon) will deliver the verdict on the appeal trial of former Mayor Shin, who was charged with violating the Public Official Election Act and other offenses.

Shin was prosecuted for allegedly spreading false posts defaming then-presidential candidate Moon Jae-in over 200 times via KakaoTalk from December 2016 to March 2017, with the intent to prevent Moon from winning the election.

The first trial court ruled that the parts stating false facts, such as Moon having served as Chief of Staff to former President Roh Moo-hyun and supporting pro-government media with large-scale funds while creating presidential slush funds, constituted violations of the Public Official Election Act and defamation. The court stated, "By violating the political neutrality obligation of a public official, distorting public opinion, undermining election transparency, and lowering the victim's social evaluation, the crime is not minor," and recognized Shin's guilt, sentencing him to a fine of 8 million won.

However, the court judged that expressions referring to Moon as a "red from Yangsan" and a "communist" were subjective evaluations rather than false 'facts.' Although sending the message calling him a "communist" was intended to influence the election, it was interpreted as not constituting defamation due to spreading false information.

However, the appellate court found that messages sent by Shin before the registration of preliminary candidates for the 19th presidential election primary also had the intent to influence the election. Accordingly, the court increased the fine to 10 million won. The court stated, "Even if the messages were sent only via one-on-one chats, since they were sent to multiple people, publicity is recognized in itself," and ruled, "From the perspective of the possibility of dissemination, the defendant must be considered to have recognized and accepted the risk that the messages could be spread to unspecified or multiple people at the time of sending."

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