[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] Former Minister of National Defense Kim Kwan-jin, who was indicted on charges including ordering 'comment manipulation' by the military cyber command, was sentenced to prison again in the appellate court.
The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 13 (Presiding Judge Gu Hoe-geun) overturned the original sentence of 2 years and 6 months imprisonment and sentenced former Minister Kim, indicted on charges including political involvement under the Military Criminal Act, to 2 years and 4 months imprisonment on the 22nd. However, considering that other trials are ongoing as in the first trial, he was not detained in court.
The court, as in the first trial, found former Minister Kim guilty of political involvement charges, but acquitted him of abuse of authority and obstruction of rights charges related to determining whether new military cyber command civilian employees had pro-government tendencies and excluding those from Honam region.
However, the court overturned the abuse of authority charge against former Director of the Ministry of National Defense Investigation Headquarters Baek Nak-jong, which was recognized as guilty in the first trial. It judged that former Minister Kim's instruction to ignore the fact that the Ministry of National Defense Investigation Headquarters confirmed the military cyber command's involvement in the 2012 presidential election could not be considered as making him do an 'unobligated act' in legal terms.
On the same day, the court sentenced former Director of Policy Office of the Ministry of National Defense Lim Gwan-bin, who was indicted together with former Minister Kim, to 1 year and 6 months imprisonment with 3 years probation, as in the original trial. Former Blue House Foreign Strategy Planning Officer Kim Tae-hyo, who was fined 10 million won in the first trial, was found guilty only of violating the Presidential Records Management Act and was given a suspended sentence of a 3 million won fine.
Former Minister Kim was indicted on charges of conspiring with former Director Lim and former Planning Officer Kim around the 2012 general and presidential elections to order military cyber command personnel to post about 9,000 political comments online supporting the government and ruling party and criticizing the opposition party.
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