1-yr prison term upheld for rapper NO:EL for breathalyzer test refusal, police assault

▲ Rapper Chang Yong-jun, better known by his stage name NO:EL, appears at Seocho Police Station in Seoul for questioning, in this Sept. 30, 2021, file photo. (Yonhap)

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1-yr prison term upheld for rapper NO:EL for breathalyzer test refusal, police assault

SEOUL, July 28 (Yonhap) -- An appellate court upheld a one-year prison term for rapper Chang Yong-jun, also known as NO:EL, Thursday for refusing a police breathalyzer test and assaulting an officer after being involved in a traffic accident last year.

The 22-year-old rapper was arrested in October on charges of driving without a license, refusing a breathalyzer test and assaulting a police officer after causing a fender bender while driving his Mercedes in southern Seoul the previous month.

Police sent to the accident scene at that time asked Chang to take a breathalyzer test, but he refused and head-butted an officer, according to investigators.

He is the son of Chang Je-won, a three-term lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party, who is considered one of the closest confidants of President Yoon Suk-yeol.

In the first ruling on the case in April, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced him to one year behind bars, holding him accountable for causing a "grave" offense while he was serving a suspended jail term for a separate driving-under-the-influence conviction in 2020.

Chang was previously sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison, suspended for two years, in 2020 for causing a car accident while driving under the influence of alcohol the previous year. On Thursday, an appellate body of the Seoul Central District Court confirmed the one-year prison term for him.

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