material photo” alt=”Won Se-hoon, former head of the National Intelligence Service. Won Se-hoon, former head of the National Intelligence Service. <한겨레> Base photo
The Supreme Court sent back the case to re-examine the case of former National Intelligence Service Director Won Se-hoon, who was sentenced to 7 years in prison in an appeal trial for allegations of political involvement. It overturned the judgment of the appeals trial, which saw some charges of abuse of authority as innocent, and destroyed it for the purpose of guilty. On the 11th, the first part of the Supreme Court (Presiding Judge Kim Seon-eun) issued a court judgment of 7 years in prison and 5 years ineligibility at the appeal of Won Jeon, etc., who were accused of violating the Act on aggravated punishment for certain crimes (loss of national treasury, etc.). After breaking, the case was returned to the Seoul Court. Won Jeon was charged with running a civilian’comment unit’ and conducting inspections against opposition politicians and celebrities. He is also accused of collecting information on the rumors of the late Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun and writing political maneuvering documents against opposition politicians such as the late Mayor Park Won-soon. There is also a suspicion of handing the NIS’ special activity expenses to former President Lee Myung-bak. The first trial pleaded guilty to the charges of funding and perjury of the NIS to the outlying team linked to the psychological warfare cyber team, the charge of providing 100,000 dollars to the former president, and the slush fund tracking project of the late Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. He was sentenced to 7 years of ineligibility. Former (MBC) president Kim Jae-cheol, who was also prosecuted, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and three years probation. In addition, former NIS executives who participated in political operations under the direction of former director Won Won were also sentenced to three years of probation and imprisonment. The second trial changed the judgment on some of the charges and sentenced former director Won to 7 years in prison and 5 years ineligibility. Unlike the first trial, the second trial was guilty of spending a total of 2.8 billion won in extracurricular expenses for the NIS to rent a room at a famous hotel in Korea. However, the charges of following and monitoring Mrs. Kwon Yang-sook and the late Mayor Park Won-soon were found innocent. However, the Supreme Court said, “The establishment of a violation of the National Intelligence Service Act due to abuse of authority is not only the legal principles applicable to general abuse of authority, but also the legislative process and purpose of the independent penal provisions, the legal status and influence of the NIS, the duties the NIS is responsible for, and the manner in which it is performed. It is necessary to comprehensively consider the specificity of the government and the strict command system of upper and lower suits within the NIS,” he said. At the same time, the case was returned with the intent of being guilty of violating the National Intelligence Service Act related to Mrs. Kwon and former Mayor Park, who were found not guilty at the appeal trial, saying, “This is the time when Mr. Won made the working person in charge do something that is not legally obligated.” . In addition, regarding the alleged violation of the National Intelligence Service Act due to abuse of the rest of the authority, it was judged that “there was a mistake that did not complete the necessary hearing because of misunderstanding of the law.” Meanwhile, Director Won Won was charged with receiving billions of money from the representative of a construction company, and was sentenced to one year and two months in prison in the Supreme Court in September 2016. In addition, he was handed over to trial for intervening in various elections by mobilizing employees of the NIS psychological squad’s cyber team, and was sentenced to four years in prison in April 2018. By Jo Yoon-young, staff reporter