The acquittal of Ko Young-joo (73), former chairman of the Broadcasting Culture Promotion Association, who was charged with remarking that President Moon Jae-in was a 'communist', has been acquitted.
According to the legal community today (21st), the prosecution did not submit a re-appeal to the court until the 18th, the deadline for re-appeal against Koh's acquittal.
If you are dissatisfied with a judgment in a criminal trial, you must file a written appeal within 7 days from the date of the judgment to the court that issued the sentence.
Accordingly, the criminal trial of former chairman Koh was acquitted four years and six months after the prosecution's indictment was made.
In January 2013, at the New Year's Party, a conservative civic group, former chairman Koh remarked that President Moon Jae-in, who was the presidential candidate at the time, was "a communist, and it is only a matter of time until this person becomes president".
He said that the Burim case, in which President Moon served as a defense counsel for the retrial, was also "a communist movement, not a democratization movement, and Moon was well aware of this."
President Moon sued Koh for defamation in September 2015, and the prosecution forwarded it to trial in September 2017, two years later, on charges of defamation by timely reporting of false information.
The first trial acquitted Koh, saying he had no intention of defamation.
However, the appeals court sentenced him to 10 months in prison and 2 years of probation, saying that the remarks were out of the scope of freedom of expression.
The Supreme Court again overturned this judgment and reversed and remanded the case to the purport of not guilty.
On the 11th, the court of the remandatory remand trial said, "Communist remarks are justified as expressing the defendant's position on the victim's ideology or ideology based on the defendant's experience, and it is difficult to see it as specific facts that can damage the victim's reputation." acquitted.
(Photo = Yonhap News)