[Breaking] Supreme Court Confirms Suspended Sentence for Yoon Mee-hyang in 'Comfort Women Donation Embezzlement' Case

The conviction of former Democratic Party lawmaker Yoon Mee-hyang, who was accused of embezzling donations intended to support former comfort women victims of the Japanese military, has been finalized.

The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Kim Sang-hwan) on the 14th upheld the lower court's ruling sentencing Yoon, who was tried on eight charges including fraud, quasi-fraud, embezzlement and breach of trust in the course of duty, violation of the Act on the Collection and Use of Donations, violation of the Subsidy Act, and violation of the Local Finance Act, to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 3-year probation.

Former Democratic Party lawmaker Yoon Mi-hyang. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

The court stated, "There is no error in dismissing Yoon's appeal as the lower court's guilty verdict did not violate the rules of logic and experience, nor did it exceed the limits of free evaluation of evidence. There was no misapplication or omission of legal principles regarding the establishment of fraud, violation of the Subsidy Act, violation of the Act on the Collection and Use of Donations, and embezzlement in the course of duty, nor of the principles of evidence-based judgment, presumption of innocence, adversarial proceedings and direct examination, legality principle, justifiable acts, conspiracy, and burden of proof."

Yoon was indicted in September 2020 on charges including the private use of funds raised from 2011 to 2020 to help comfort women victims, falsely receiving subsidies from the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and collecting donations into organizational and personal accounts without registration with the competent authorities.

The first trial court recognized only the embezzlement of 17.18 million won as guilty and sentenced her to a fine of 15 million won.

However, in September last year, the appellate court significantly expanded the scope of the guilty verdict and sentenced her to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 3-year probation.

The second trial court increased the amount of embezzled donations to 79.58 million won and, unlike the first trial, also found her guilty of collecting 129.67 million won in condolence money for Grandmother Kim Bok-dong into a personal account and using it for other purposes.