2-year prison term sought for two ex-party campaign officials over fake tip-off
By YonhapPublished : Nov. 30, 2017 - 21:30
Prosecutors sought a two-year prison term for two former campaign officials of the minor opposition People's Party over a fake tip-off about President Moon Jae-in's son that was revealed before the May presidential vote.
Lee Joon-seo, 40, and Lee You-mi, 38, are on trial on charges that they created and disclosed disinformation about the backdoor hiring of Moon Joon-yong by a public agency in 2006 ahead of the vote.
The main opposition party made the revelation three days before the election, accusing Moon, then the presidential front-runner, of exerting influence on the hiring as a presidential secretary under the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration.
The tip-off was released to the media in captured images of talks on a mobile messenger between Lee You-mi, the campaigner for then presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo and a man claiming to be a friend of Moon's son.
She was found later to have concocted false information with her brother, who posed as the friend. The disinformation was delivered by Lee Joong-seo to party members on the election panel.
Prosecutors concluded in July that the party's leaders including Ahn were not involved in the scandal. But the fake tip-off brought the centrist party into its worst crisis only over a year after its launch. (Yonhap)