By Lee Kyung-min
An appeals court Wednesday upheld guilty verdicts for three National Intelligence Service (NIS) officials and three others involved in document forgery that led to the indictment of North Korea-born Korean-Chinese Yoo Woo-sung on espionage charges.
Yoo, a former contract worker for Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG), was indicted on charges that he accessed and delivered government data on North Korean defectors here to the North. However, it was discovered that the indictment was based on manipulated documents provided by spy agency officials.
Yoo received a not guilty verdict from lower courts, and the case is being reviewed by the Supreme Court.
The six include three NIS officials surnamed Kim, Kwon and Lee; a consulate general stationed in China, Lee In-cheol; a man surnamed Kim who helped the NIS; and a Korean-Chinese surnamed Kim.
The Seoul High Court handed down heavier sentences for three ― the NIS official surnamed Kim, and the other two Kims.
The NIS official was sentenced to four years after being found guilty of fabricating Yoo’s immigration records and submitting them to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and to the appeals court as evidence. Earlier he was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
“Kim deserves a harsher sentence because he failed to collect the evidence in a fair and legitimate way,” the court said in its ruling.
The judge added that the other two also deserved harsher sentences. The two Kims were sentenced to two years and 18 months in prison, respectively. Earlier, they both received eight months in prison.
The remaining three received lighter sentences because the court deemed they did not work as a group for the purpose of committing conspiracy.
Kwon, Lee and the consulate general were sentenced to a 7 million won fine, 10 million won fine and 7 million won fine, respectively.
Earlier, Kwon ad Lee had received 18 months in prison suspended for two years and the consulate general one year suspended for two years.