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| Former Chief of Staff Lee Byung-kee speaks to reporters at the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap |
Lee Byung-kee, who served as presidential chief of staff during the Park Geun-hye presidency, and eight other former government officials were acquitted Wednesday of charges of hindering the activities of an independent panel looking into a 2014 ferry sinking.
The Seoul Central District Court handed out the not-guilty verdict to Lee and the eight officials, including Park's former political and economic affairs secretaries and former maritime affairs minister.
The panel was set up in January 2015 under a special law enacted to determine why the 6,800-ton Sewol ferry capsized in waters off the southwest coast, killing more than 300 people, mostly high school students.
Lee and the eight former officials were indicted in May 2020 on charges of obstructing the appointment of a key panel official and the dispatch of 12 public officials to the panel in late 2015.
Prosecutors demanded imprisonment of three years for Lee. (Yonhap)
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