A man in his 60s receives suspended sentence for providing money in cooperative chief election

In the 3rd Nationwide Simultaneous Cooperative Head Election, a cooperative member who requested support for a specific candidate and provided money was sentenced to imprisonment with a suspended sentence.

According to the legal community on the 14th, Kim Hyo-jin, Chief Judge of Criminal Division 5 at Gwangju District Court, sentenced A (61), who was indicted for violating the Act on Public Organizations and Entrusted Elections, to 4 months in prison with a 1-year suspension.

A is accused of providing 1 million won in cash on March 6 at an office in Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, while requesting support for a specific candidate running for the cooperative head election.

He personally met with one family member who is both a cooperative member and voter, handed over the cash, and later called to ask for support for the cooperative head candidate Bae Mo.

Bae, whom A supported, lost the election.

Under current law, it is prohibited to provide money to family members of voters for election campaigning purposes, and persons who are not candidates must not engage in election campaigning.

Chief Judge Kim pointed out, "Providing money or goods in the agricultural cooperative head election raises serious concerns about undermining the fairness of the election itself, so the culpability is not light."

However, he added, "Considering that the defendant admitted to the crime, the monetary provision had little impact on the election results, and aside from a previous fine, there are no other criminal records, these factors were comprehensively taken into account."

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