Top court upholds prison term for former spy chief

By Kang Seung-woo

The nation's top court confirmed a four-year prison sentence for a former spy agency chief, Thursday, for election interference and political meddling.

The Supreme Court decision came five years after Won Sei-hoon, who headed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) from 2009 to 2013 under President Lee Myung-bak, was first indicted in June 2013 for operating cyber teams to sway public opinion in favor of the then-ruling party candidate Park Geun-hye in the 2012 presidential election. Park won the election by a small margin.

Last August, an appeals court ruled the 67-year-old meddled in the 2012 vote through a covert cyber operation and engaged in political activities in violation of laws governing the election and of the NIS.

“The NIS cyber teams' operations can be seen as activities in an election campaign, abusing their status as civil servants,” the Supreme Court said.

“It means that Won ordered the agency to get involved in politics and interfering with the election campaign, both of which are illegal.”

Previous rulings had given mixed views about whether the cyber operations he ordered constituted illegal interference in the election. A violation of the Election Law faces heavier punishment than that of the NIS Law.

At the first trial in 2014, Won was handed a suspended sentence. He claimed he was only accountable for intervening in politics, not guilty of election meddling, but the appeals court overturned the verdict in 2015, sentencing the former NIS chief to three years in prison.

However, later that year, the Supreme Court threw out some of the evidence against him and returned the case to the high court.

Last August, the Seoul High Court found Won, a close confidant of former President Lee, guilty of violating the Election Law and sentenced him to four years in prison.

Following the verdict, Won's lawyers appealed.

According to the prosecution, the Won-led spy agency hired hundreds of civilians to post internet comments to criticize those who were opposed to the Lee administration, and expressed liberal views in the run-up to the presidential election.

The case first came to light after a female NIS official was found to have engaged in a suspected smear campaign against opposition candidate Moon Jae-in in December 2012, less than a week before the presidential vote.

At that time, then-main opposition lawmakers visited her residence but she refused for hours to open the door. Those lawmakers were indicted in 2014 for harassing her, but all of them were cleared in March.

Along with the election meddling case, Won has additionally been charged for misusing 6.5 billion won ($6.12 million) to finance the online smear campaign.