Prosecution Seeks Prison Sentence for Prosecutor Jin Hyewon on Election Law Violation and Defamation of Kim Geonhee

1 Year and 6 Months Imprisonment, 1 Year Disqualification
"Violation of Civil Servant's Duty of Political Neutrality"

The prosecution requested a prison sentence and disqualification for Prosecutor Jin Hye-won (48), who was indicted on charges of posting defamatory comments about a specific political party candidate and mocking First Lady Kim Keon-hee, wife of President Yoon Seok-yeol, on social networking services (SNS).

On the 8th, at a trial held before the Criminal Division 11 of the Seoul Western District Court (Presiding Judge Bae Seong-jung), the prosecution sought a one-year prison sentence and one-year disqualification for Prosecutor Jin on charges of violating the National Public Service Act and the Public Official Election Act, and a six-month prison sentence for defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act.

Prosecutor Jin Hyewon [Photo by Yonhap News]

The prosecution pointed out, "The defendant is a public official who must maintain political neutrality, and as a prosecutor, the demand for political neutrality is even more urgent than for other public officials. Nevertheless, she used SNS, which has strong propagation power, to conduct election campaigning."

They added, "Considering that the defendant's Facebook account has over 10,000 followers, which means considerable influence in election campaigning, and that she denies the charges and shows no remorse, it is necessary to impose a severe punishment and suspend her status as a public official."

The prosecution judged that Prosecutor Jin engaged in election campaigning based on the fact that she repeatedly expressed positive views about the Democratic Party's symbol color blue and negative views about the United Future Party's (predecessor of the People Power Party) symbol color red, thereby indicating support for the Democratic Party. They also viewed her support or criticism of a specific individual and affiliated party running in the 2021 by-election as part of election campaigning.

In response, Prosecutor Jin argued that expressing opinions on SNS does not constitute a criminal offense.

She said, "It seems the prosecution has a persecutory delusion against the Democratic Party. The prosecution appears to selectively prosecute when there is even a hint of disadvantage to the party they support, and not prosecute otherwise."

Prosecutor Jin is also charged with defaming First Lady Kim by posting a past photo of her on Facebook in September 2022 with the caption, "I wonder if you know how to spell Julie."