A Camp Official in the Incheon Superintendent Election Sentenced for Falsely Accusing Opponent of 'Thesis Plagiarism'

A staff member of Do Seong-hoon's election campaign, the Superintendent of Education in Incheon who was prosecuted for raising false allegations that a rival candidate plagiarized a thesis during last year's June 1 local elections, has been detained in court.

The Criminal Division 15 of the Incheon District Court (Presiding Judge Ryu Ho-jung) sentenced A (62), a staff member of Superintendent Do's election campaign, to one year in prison and detained him in court on the 10th during the sentencing trial. A was charged with violating the Local Education Autonomy Act and defamation by publication.

A was non-detained prosecuted on charges of drafting and distributing twice a press release containing false information that candidate Choi Gye-woon, running for Incheon Superintendent of Education, plagiarized a thesis in the past, in May last year ahead of the June 1 local elections. The press release at the time stated, "Candidate Choi's thesis plagiarism rate was confirmed to be as high as 88%, and the plagiarism check through the site 'Copykiller' showed that almost everything was copied."

During last year's June 1 local elections, Dosung Hoon, candidate for Incheon Superintendent of Education
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The court said, "The defendant claims that he only expressed an opinion and did not write specific facts in the press release, but based on the evidence submitted by the prosecution and the witnesses examined at the defendant's request, the contents written in the press release are factual statements," adding, "Distributing the press release based on a plagiarism check result that contained errors cannot be seen as a simple mistake."

It continued, "At that time, the election was less than a week away, and there was also an intention to defame the victim to prevent their election," and explained the sentencing reasons, "Considering that the election result was decided by a narrow margin and that it had a significant impact."

Meanwhile, Superintendent Do was also sued for raising allegations of thesis plagiarism against candidate Choi during the TV debate for the Superintendent of Education candidates in last year's local elections, but was cleared by the prosecution. The prosecution judged that it was possible that Superintendent Do genuinely believed the plagiarism allegations against the rival candidate and raised the suspicions, and it was difficult to see that he raised the allegations knowing they were false.

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