THE Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of the former head of an advocacy group representing victims of Japan’s wartime sexual abuse for embezzlement and sentenced her to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years.
Yoon Mee-hyang was indicted in 2020 on charges of fraud and embezzlement during her time as chief of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, better known as Jungdaehyup.
The group supports surviving “comfort women” – a Japanese euphemism for those forced to work in wartime brothels during Japan’s colonisation of the Korean peninsula in 1910 to 1945.
A Seoul district court in February 2023 ruled that Yoon embezzled at least 17 million won (RM54,000) of organisation funds raised through donations and fined her 15 million won (RM47,600), but cleared her of most other charges.
Seven months later, an appeal court convicted her of illegally receiving state subsidies and raising donations and embezzling more than 79 million won (RM250,000), handing her an 18-month suspended prison sentence.
The Supreme Court in a statement confirmed the higher court verdict.
Yoon, who stepped down from Jungdaehyup before her 2020 indictment to run for parliament and was an opposition lawmaker until last May, could not immediately be reached for comment. She has previously apologised for what she described as banking errors and causing controversy but denied the charges.
The group said in a statement it will return government subsidies in line with the ruling, but expressed regret that the court had accepted what it called the prosecutors’ excessive accusations. — Reuters
