Grandson of ex-President Chun receives suspended jail term over illegal drug use
Chun Woo-won, the grandson of late former President Chun Doo-hwan, who was indicted for illegal drug use, leaves the Seoul Central District Court, Seoul, Dec. 22. Yonhap
A grandson of late former President Chun Doo-hwan was given a suspended prison term on Friday for his illegal drug use.
The Seoul Central District Court handed down the two and a half year prison term, suspended for four years, to Chun Woo-won on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act.
The court also ordered him to be put under probation for three years and undergo 120 hours of volunteer service and 80 hours of a drug treatment program, along with a confiscation of 2.66 million won ($ 2,045).
Chun, 27, was indicted without physical detention for taking four types of drugs, including ecstasy and ketamine, during his stay in the United States from November last year to March.
The police put Chun under arrest upon his arrival at Incheon International Airport from New York on March 28 and released him the following day, after he conceded to the crime.
On Friday, the court said Chun was highly cooperative in the investigations and regretful of his wrongdoing, adding the decision to suspend his sentence was to give him a chance for a healthy social life.
The grandson has attracted widespread media attention after making a series of public accusations about irregularities and slush funds involving his family members on social media.
Soon after arriving in the country for investigations, Chun paid a visit to the southwestern city of Gwangju and apologized to the family members of the victims who died from the 1980 bloody crackdown led by his grandfather to quell a pro-democracy uprising in the city.
Chun Doo-hwan, who served as president from 1980-1988 after seizing power in a 1979 military coup, is widely criticized for ordering troops to use force to put down the pro-democracy uprising that left hundreds of people dead.
Chun, who never apologized for his actions in Gwangju, died in 2021.
Civic groups submitted a collective petition asking for leniency in the ruling against the grandson, after he took steps to apologize to the victims of the 1980 democracy rising. (Yonhap)