Prosecutor Jin Hyewon Acquitted of Election Law Violation and Defamation of Mrs. Kim Charges

Court: "Only Expressed Critical Opinions"

Prosecutor Jin Hyewon, who was indicted on charges including defamation for posting content criticizing a specific political party candidate and mocking First Lady Kim Geon-hee, wife of President Yoon Seok-yeol, on social networking services (SNS), was acquitted.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 23rd, the 11th Criminal Division of the Seoul Western District Court (Presiding Judge Bae Seong-jung) acquitted Prosecutor Jin, who was tried for violating the National Public Service Act, the Public Official Election Act, and defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act.

The court stated, "The defendant continuously posted about 480 posts on Facebook covering politics, society, culture, and other topics, and only about 16 of these posts correspond to the charges. Compared to the defendant’s usual Facebook activity, there is no significant difference in the method or form of posting." It added, "Some posts included content about the policies of a specific candidate running in the election or allegations of corruption that had been reported multiple times in the media, but these merely expressed critical opinions regarding qualifications or morality, and such posts alone cannot be considered election campaigning," explaining the reasoning behind the sentencing.

Regarding the defamation charges, the court also noted, "The spelling 'Prosetitute' differs from the English word for prostitute, and it was confirmed that this term had already been used as a neologism criticizing the prosecution organization prior to this post." The court judged, "The victim is not directly referred to as Julie or a prostitute, and the post appears to criticize the prosecution’s indictment of Jeong Mo and Ahn Mo in relation to the so-called 'Julie allegations.'"

Previously, in September 2022, Prosecutor Jin was indicted for defaming First Lady Kim by posting a past photo of her on Facebook with the caption, "I wonder if you know the spelling of Julie." At the end of the post, the English word "Prosetitute," which seemed to imply "prostitute," caused controversy. Prosecutor Jin claimed it was a neologism combining "Prosecutor" and "Institute" to criticize the prosecution’s abuse of power.