Vice Chairman of the Autonomous Committee Who Defamed Gwangju Nam-gu Council Member Fined

The chairman of a residents' autonomy committee who spread false information about a prospective candidate for a basic council member was sentenced to a fine.

According to the legal community on the 4th, the 12th Criminal Division of the Gwangju District Court sentenced A (72), the vice chairman of the Nam-gu District Autonomy Committee in Gwangju Metropolitan City, to a fine of 5 million won on charges including violation of the Public Official Election Act.

A was prosecuted for posting false information about Oh Young-sun, a council member of Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, and her husband on the Blue House National Petition bulletin board on March 25 last year.

A posted the content to prevent Councilor Oh's re-election ahead of the 8th nationwide simultaneous local elections. He claimed that Councilor Oh abused her power to help her husband's cooperative corporation win a local government public contest project.

However, it was revealed that Councilor Oh's husband was not the operator of the cooperative corporation but an auditor, and that they had not even applied for the public contest project.

A is also accused of damaging the reputation of Councilor Oh and her husband by sharing the link to the National Petition post in a KakaoTalk group chat with dozens of people.

He argued, "I posted on the Blue House National Petition board to urge clarification on whether the allegations against Councilor Oh, which I heard from local residents, were true," but this was not accepted.

The court ruled, "Based on the evidence adopted and investigated by the court, A was at least negligently aware that he was publishing false information or openly revealing false facts."

Furthermore, the court stated, "There is a high risk of undermining the fairness of the election by influencing voters' free decision-making. The culpability is not light."

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