By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
A high court sentenced a 38-year-old man to a two-year suspended jail term and 80 hours of community service, Thursday, for spreading false rumors online that a police officer sexually assaulted a female protester at a candlelit rally.
The man, identified as Kim, was indicted for posting a story titled ``A Police Officer Raped a Rallier’’ on a Web site on June 2 last year when candlelit demonstrations were held protesting the resumption of imports of American beef. In the writing, he said that riot police officers sexually assaulted female demonstrators and used violence. He also posted fabricated photos showing officers hitting protesters.
``Kim claims the sexual assault was not a false fact, but a metaphor expressing police barbarity during the confrontation with demonstrators. However, we cannot accept this, considering that the detailed writing caused a stir in society and aggravated disputes between protesters and police,’’ the court said in its ruling.
``Considering the content, seriousness of the falsehood, manner of expression and social aftermath, we recognize that he promoted distrust in the law enforcement authorities including police,’’ it said.
Unlike the lower court, however, the high court found him not guilty of writing the article about police’ violent crackdown as though he was an eye witness, and posting two photos of police stamping on female students.
``Even though it was not confirmed whether police really used violence at that time as Kim claimed, we cannot say that he recognized it to be false because the media had already carried similar reports and video clips on the violence,’’ it said.
A lower court had sentence Kim to a two year suspended jail term and 160 hours of community service.