Former Director of the National Intelligence Service Won Se-hoon, who has been on trial for nearly four years on charges of leading various political operations, appealed to the court for leniency.



Former Director Won appeared at the first formal trial of the reconciliation trial held at the Seoul High Court today (16th) and said, "I have been investigated dozens of times by the prosecution, and I have only been tried hundreds of times." "I only think that it is too cruel." said.



"I didn't kill anyone, and I didn't intend to harm anyone," he said. "There are a lot of complaints about the prosecution trying to make me a bad person."



He said, "I'm sorry that something like this happened when I was the head of the National Intelligence Service," he said.



Won's side denied most of the unconfirmed allegations, arguing that it had not received any reports of civilian inspections or political operations and had no instructions.



Former director Won Won, who was previously indicted on charges of operating a civilian commenting unit with the NIS budget, was found guilty of most of the political manipulation charges in the first and second trials and was sentenced to 7 years in prison, but followed Mrs. Kwon Yang-sook and the late former mayor Park Won-soon. The charge of abuse of power and obstruction of exercise of the right to do so was acquitted for legal reasons.



However, in March, the Supreme Court reversed the case and sent it back to the Seoul High Court, saying that the NIS's abuse of power should be judged more strictly.



(Photo = Yonhap News)