Supreme Court of Korea upholds acquittals for Dr. Yang Seung-oh and others over claim about Park Won-soon’s son’s military service

[Financial News] Dr. Yang Seung-oh and others, who were indicted on charges of spreading false information after raising allegations of military service irregularities involving the son of the late former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, have had their acquittals finalized by the Supreme Court of Korea. It has been about 12 years since they were indicted in November 2014.
The First Petty Bench of the Supreme Court of Korea, presided over by Justice Ma Yong-ju, upheld the lower court ruling on the 25th in the appeal trial for six people indicted on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act. The court acquitted five of them and upheld a fine of 700,000 won for the remaining defendant, who was found guilty of distributing documents in a manner not prescribed by election law.
Yang and the others were indicted for falsely claiming, through social media posts, internet articles and mailed materials ahead of the June 4 Local Elections in 2014, that Park had used a third party to receive a Grade 4 military service classification in a physical examination, with the aim of defeating the former mayor. Some defendants were also charged with defamation of a candidate.
Park enlisted in the Republic of Korea Air Force in August 2011 but was sent home after complaining of thigh pain. In December that year, he filed for a change in military service classification, and his physical grade was changed from Grade 2 to Grade 4, which meant public service duty, on the grounds of a herniated disc. When suspicions were raised the following January, Park underwent a public spinal MRI at Severance Hospital in February 2012, and the military authorities announced that the images were of the same person as those submitted to the Military Manpower Administration. However, Yang and the others claimed the images had been swapped and filed a complaint, while the prosecutors' office cleared the case in 2013.
In the first trial in 2016, the court said the contents of the posts and mailed materials went beyond simply raising suspicions and amounted to false statements asserting military service corruption. It sentenced three defendants, including Yang, to fines of 15 million won, and imposed fines ranging from 7 million won to 10 million won on the others.
In February this year, the appeals court overturned the convictions and acquitted them, saying it had been proven that Park himself took part in the imaging and that no proxy had been involved. The court maintained its finding that the statements were false, but said it could not conclude that they had been made with intent to spread false information.
The bench said, "The defendants made multifaceted efforts to verify the truth, to the extent possible, regarding suspicions that had not been resolved even after the prosecutors' office decided not to indict, and there was considerable reason for them to believe the suspicions were true in the process." It also noted that because the people who raised the suspicions did not participate in the public physical examination, it was difficult to determine whether the subject in the video was Park.
The prosecutor appealed, but the Supreme Court of Korea dismissed the appeal, saying, "The lower court did not exceed the limits of free evaluation of evidence, nor did it err in its interpretation of the law on the publication of false information or defamation of a candidate."

hwlee@fnnews.com Lee Hwan-ju Reporter