By Kim Hyun-bin
Prosecutors requested the Seoul Central District Court to hand out prison sentences to the four people involved in the “Druking” case.
“There is another investigation underway and there is the possibility the accused could destroy evidence, so a prison sentence is necessary,” a prosecutor said at the final trial hearing Wednesday. “Even before the trial they erased Telegram messages and destroyed USB devices to obstruct the first investigation. They only confessed in order to just get a fine. If they get their way, it will be difficult to uncover the entire truth.”
Kim Dong-won, a power blogger known as Druking, and three of his associates are accused of rigging online opinion polls in favor of the current administration.
“All of the electronic devices including computers and cellphones have been confiscated. There is no other evidence that can be destroyed,” Kim's lawyer said. “We will fully cooperate with the investigation so we request a swift end to the trial.”
Prosecutors have asked to extend the trial as they have more information sent by the police, which brings the possibility of them filing additional charges.
“The prosecutors have requested an extension of the trial to further investigate and indict people who are not included in the arrest warrant. We cannot accept the request,” the court said. “We will deliver the verdict on July 25.”
The blogger and his accomplices used software before the presidential election in May last year to input multiple “likes” for specific comments about news articles. Druking allegedly set up a team in January 2017 to increase the number of clicks on news articles in favor of then-presidential candidate Moon Jae-in during the presidential race.
They are accused of creating over 1.84 million repeated comments on 537 news articles using 2,286 Naver accounts.
Druking had connections to officials from the ruling party and the presidential office including former lawmaker Kim Kyoung-soo, who was elected governor of South Gyeongsang Province in local elections last month.
Druking reportedly turned his back on the ruling party, allegedly after the presidential office refused his personnel appointment requests. On Monday, Kim of the Democratic Party of Korea admitted Druking approached him last year before the May presidential election. He claimed the power blogger later demanded an acquaintance be appointed to a consul-general post in Osaka, Japan, in return for his online activities in support of Moon during the presidential election campaign.
Last week, an independent counsel led by Huh Ik-bum started investigating the online opinion-rigging scandal.
Huh was appointed earlier this month by President Moon.