Man in his 60s accused of posting more than 3,600 claims that Sewol and Itaewon disasters were fabricated denies charges in court

[Financial News] Prosecutors have asked the court to sentence a man in his 60s to 18 months in prison. He was indicted while in custody on suspicion of posting more than 3,600 false claims that the Sewol, Itaewon and Muan Airport plane disasters were fabricated. Even in court, the man stood by his previous claim that “there were no dead people and no bereaved families.”
On the 12th, the Seoul Western District Court’s single-judge Criminal Division 6, presided over by Judge Kim Jin-sung, held the first hearing for Mr. Kim, 60, who was indicted on charges including defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection and defamation of the deceased.
The prosecutor sought an 18-month prison sentence, saying, “We took into account that the defendant committed multiple offenses over an extended period, that the offenses were serious, and that he has received no forgiveness from the bereaved families.”
Mr. Kim is accused of posting a total of 3,624 false posts on the online community Ilgan Best Storage (Ilbe), personal blogs and other sites from 2022 through March this year, claiming that the Sewol, Itaewon and Muan Airport plane disasters were fabricated and that no victims existed.
Investigators found that Mr. Kim used his posts to claim that victims who received CPR during the Itaewon disaster were mannequins rather than real people, and spread false claims suggesting that relatives of Sewol disaster victims were actors.
Mr. Kim denied the charges again in court that day. When the judge asked whether he acknowledged that the disaster had actually occurred and that people had died, Mr. Kim replied, “I clearly claimed that there were no dead people and no bereaved families.”
He went on to claim that a photo from the Sewol disaster showed no lifeboats deployed and no passengers who had jumped into the sea, saying, “Looking at that photo, I could only think it was a fraud on the public.” When the presiding judge asked again whether he still thought so, he replied, “Of course, looking at that photo, I can only think that.”
Mr. Kim also argued that defamation could not be established because he had claimed that the victims did not exist. The prosecutor countered that the posts met the requirement of public dissemination because they appeared on an online community accessible to an unspecified number of people, and that intent, at least in the form of dolus eventualis, to make false statements was also established because numerous court rulings and media reports had confirmed that the disasters occurred.
This is the third case in which a suspect has been referred to prosecutors in custody since the National Police Agency launched its Second Victimization Crimes Investigation Division in July last year. Earlier, a man in his 60s who posted 362 false posts about victims of the Itaewon disaster was sentenced to six months in prison at his first trial last June. A man in his 50s who disparaged relatives of victims of the Sewol and Itaewon disasters was also sentenced to one year in prison at his first trial last August. Both defendants have appealed.
In his final statement, Mr. Kim said, “Intent, dolus eventualis and public dissemination have not been proven,” adding, “I feel deeply wronged and intend to argue that I am innocent.”
The court concluded the proceedings that day and scheduled its verdict for 10 a.m. on November 9.
[email protected] Choi Seung-han Reporter