Prosecutor Jin Hyewon on 'Kim Geonhee Defamation': "Charges Unclear, Please Specify Scope"

Jin Hyewon (48, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 34), deputy chief prosecutor of the Busan District Prosecutors' Office, who was indicted on charges of defamation for posting a mocking post about First Lady Kim Keon-hee, wife of President Yoon Suk-yeol, on Facebook, demanded that the prosecution clarify the facts of the charges in court.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

At the trial held on the 11th under the presiding of the 11th Criminal Division of the Seoul Western District Court (Chief Judge Bae Seong-jung), Prosecutor Jin stated regarding the 'Julie allegations' mentioned in the prosecution's charges that "the scope is not specified enough to exercise the right to defense." She requested the prosecution to specify which of the allegations related to Kim, raised before the 20th presidential election last year, the problematic post referred to.

The prosecution said, "We do not understand the defendant's claim," and added, "We plan to organize and submit a written opinion by the next hearing."

However, the court asked the prosecution to submit a supplementary written opinion clarifying which part of the post in the charges constitutes false statements by the next hearing, stating, "There is an unclear aspect regarding which part of the post in the charges contains false facts."

Prosecutor Jin was referred to trial without detention in July on charges of defaming First Lady Kim by posting a past photo of her on Facebook in September last year along with the comment, "I don't know if you know the spelling of Julie," which is alleged to be defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act.

At the end of the post, she also posted the English word "Prosetitute," which seemed to imply "Prostitute." At the trial, Prosecutor Jin rebutted that the English word was her own coined term combining "Prosecutor" and "Institute" to criticize the prosecution's abuse of power.