Deuce's Late Kim Sung-jae's Ex-Girlfriend Loses Drug Analyst Defamation Lawsuit Appeal

Seoul High Court, Seocho-dong, Seoul / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The ex-girlfriend of the late Kim Seongjae, a member of the group Deux, lost again in the second trial in a lawsuit against a drug testing expert.

According to the legal community on the 16th, the Seoul High Court Civil Division 27 (Presiding Judges Ji Yeongnan, Oh Yeongsang, Lee Jaehyeok) ruled against plaintiff A, Kim’s ex-girlfriend, in the appeal trial of a 1 billion KRW damages claim lawsuit filed against drug expert B.

In 2019, A filed the lawsuit claiming, "B defamed me by saying on broadcasts and lectures that I was Kim’s murderer." The claim was that 25 years ago, B testified that the animal anesthetic 'Zoletil' detected in Kim could be used as a substitute for drugs, but later reversed this on broadcasts and lectures, making it appear as if A was the murderer.

On the other hand, B argued, "I did not mention A specifically or only used the generic term ‘girlfriend’," and "It cannot be seen that she was identified as the murderer." He claimed that his statements referred to objective facts related to the progress of the investigation at the time and could not be considered false.

The first trial court ruled in favor of B. Considering that Zoletil is not designated as a psychotropic drug, it judged that mentioning it was not a drug or calling it a poison could not be regarded as false information. "Even if B’s statements included content that could be seen as false, they appear to have been made based on objective data," the court stated.

Previously, A, who was Kim’s lover, was tried on charges of murdering Kim, who was found dead in a hotel in 1995, but was acquitted by the Supreme Court. However, controversy over the circumstances of his death continued as the autopsy revealed multiple injection marks on the body and that Zoletil was the cause of death.