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| ▲ Independent lawmaker Youn Mee-hyang attends a ruling at the Seoul High Court in Seoul on Sept. 20, 2023. (Yonhap) |
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Sentence raised to suspended imprisonment for activist-turned lawmaker for embezzling donations for sexual slavery victims
SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Yonhap) -- An appellate court sentenced independent lawmaker Youn Mee-hyang to a suspended jail term Wednesday on charges of embezzling funds donated to help support women who were forced into wartime sexual slavery by Japan during World War II.
The Seoul High Court delivered a 1 1/2-year prison term, suspended for three years, for Youn, a sentence far heavier than the fine of 15 million won (US$11,278) handed down by a district court in February.
Should the top court uphold the prison term, Youn will lose her parliamentary seat in accordance with a law that removes a sitting lawmaker who gets a prison term or other heavier sentence for any kind of crime.
Youn was indicted in 2020 for collecting hundreds of millions of won in donations in her private bank accounts and spending some of that money on personal matters, while heading a major civic group for wartime sexual slavery victims, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery.
Youn led the group from 2005-20 before winning a parliamentary seat on the Democratic Party's (DP) ticket in 2020. The DP expelled Youn in 2021, and she has since been an independent.
The high court found Youn guilty of embezzling 80 million won, an amount far higher than the 17.2 million won the district court had recognized. The court also additionally found her guilty of misappropriating tens of millions of won provided by the gender ministry as subsidies, as well as condolence money collected after the death of a sexual slavery victim.
Following the ruling, Youn pledged to continue efforts to prove her "innocence," saying she will do her utmost so as not to have her 30-year-long campaign to resolve the sexual slavery issue "tarnished" by the scandal.
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