A Seoul district court on Thursday sentenced a former government intelligence chief to two years and six months in prison for meddling in the 2012 presidential election but stayed the sentence for four years.

Won Sei-hoon, former director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), was found guilty of spearheading an online smear campaign in favor of President Park Geun-hye, then ruling party candidate, while heading the agency.

The Seoul Central District Court found Won guilty of ordering NIS agents to post politically sensitive comments not only on major Internet bulletin boards but also on Twitter, with NIS agents allegedly posting and retweeting a total of 780,000 million messages, in violation of the law governing the status of NIS officials.

The court, however, acquitted the 63-year-old of violating the Public Official Election Act.

Despite the conviction, Won, who was released from Tuesday after serving one year and two months for a separate bribery conviction, can continue to stay out of prison.

Prosecutors had initially demanded a four-year jail sentence for him.

Won, a close aide to then-President Lee Myung-bak, had headed the NIS for about four years until early 2013. (Yonhap)