Song Min-ho "I Will Serve in the Military Again" ... First-Trial Verdict Today Over 102 Days of Absence as Social Service Personnel

[Financial News] Winner's Mino, 33, was indicted on charges of conspiring with Mr. Lee, the person responsible for managing his service, to be absent without authorization for a total of 102 days while serving as social service personnel. The court is set to issue its first-instance ruling on the case on the 1st.
Judge Sung Jun-gyu of the Seoul Western District Court's Criminal Division 10 will hold a first-instance sentencing hearing at 10 a.m. that day for Mino and Mr. Lee, who face charges including violations of the Military Service Act.
At the final hearing held in April, prosecutors sought a sentence of one year and six months in prison for Mino. They also asked the court to sentence Mr. Lee, who was indicted alongside him, to one year in prison.
Mino is accused of working as social service personnel at the Mapo-gu Facilities Management Corporation and resident convenience facilities from May 30, 2023, to December 2, 2024, while conspiring with Mr. Lee, who was responsible for managing his service, to be absent without authorization for a total of 102 days.
Mino admitted the charges against him at his first trial and pleaded for leniency. In his final statement, he said, "As a young man of the Republic of Korea, I failed to faithfully fulfill to the end my duty of national defense, which I am obligated to carry out." He added, "If I recover my health as soon as possible and am given the opportunity to serve again, I want to complete it faithfully to the very end."
However, he denied the allegation that he had conspired with Mr. Lee in advance to be absent without authorization.
Mino appeared as a witness at Mr. Lee's trial and testified that Mr. Lee was not involved in his absence from service, saying, "It was my responsibility that I did not report to work." He also said that Mr. Lee had never instructed him not to report to work or discussed ways to evade his service with him.
Mr. Lee is accused of condoning Mino's inadequate service by properly processing his service records despite knowing about his unauthorized absences. Mr. Lee's side argued that he merely failed to properly check whether Mino had reported to work while handling multiple duties simultaneously, and that they had not conspired in advance to commit the unauthorized absences. It requested a deferment of sentencing, citing Mr. Lee's 26 years of public service.
Previously, after receiving a request for an investigation from the Military Manpower Administration (MMA), the Seoul Mapo Police Station referred Mino and others to prosecutors in May last year. Following a supplementary investigation, including a forensic examination of mobile phones and a review of GPS records, prosecutors confirmed additional unauthorized absences and indicted them without detention in December last year.
The Military Service Act stipulates that social service personnel who are absent from service for a total of eight or more days without a justifiable reason may be punished by up to three years in prison.
[email protected] Ahn Ga-eul Reporter