Court upholds jail term for former legislator over pro-DPRK charges
The Republic of Korea's Supreme Court upheld a prison sentence on Thursday for a former lawmaker accused of encouraging an armed rebellion in the country should war break out with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
In confirming a nine-year prison sentence for former Unified Progressive Party lawmaker Lee Seok-ki for inciting rebellion and praising the DPRK, the court also upheld shorter terms for six of Lee's colleagues in their final appeals trial, Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae said.
The ruling follows several other decisions that have drawn sharp criticism from liberals. Earlier this month, ROK officials arrested leftist activist Hwang Sun, a former party colleague of Lee, for praising the DPRK, which is illegal in the ROK under its National Security Law. That arrest came just days after a US citizen was deported because of similar accusations.
In December, the ROK's Constitutional Court ordered the breakup of Lee's party for supporting the DPRK and removed Lee and four other lawmakers from the National Assembly.
Lee was arrested in September 2013, a week after the ROK's intelligence agency raided his office and a day after the assembly voted to lift his legislative immunity against arrest.
Prosecutors accused Lee of holding a secret meeting with 130 followers in May 2013 where he and the other defendants talked about launching strikes on national infrastructure in the event of war.
Before his arrest, Lee denied the accusations against him. He accused the intelligence agency of fabricating the charges to divert public attention from an investigation into suspicions that its agents engaged in illegal online campaigning to help Park Geun-hye win the presidential election in December 2012.
Lawyers for Lee and his colleagues argued in court that it was unclear that they really intended to plot a rebellion. They also questioned whether the recordings, computer files, USB drives and smartphone records obtained by prosecutors were reliable.
