The leader of a university drug club, known as 'Kkanbu,' has been sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for his role in a collective drug distribution and use case involving major private universities in the Seoul metropolitan area.
According to Yonhap News on June 20, the Supreme Court's second division, led by Justice Kwon Young-jun, upheld the lower court's sentence of 1.5 years for Yeom, who was charged with violating drug control laws, special injury, and using cameras to commit sexual violence.
Yeom was indicted last July for leading the activities of 'Kkanbu,' a club formed by students from 13 universities in the metropolitan area, which allegedly distributed and used drugs collectively for about a year starting in late 2022.
He also faced charges for assaulting a girlfriend he met in the club and threatening to distribute a sexual video of her, as well as falsely accusing a cryptocurrency money launderer who attempted to report the drug activities (false accusation).
The first trial found him guilty of drug-related charges and sentenced him to three years in prison, ordered the forfeiture of 13,426,000 won, and mandated completion of 40 hours each of drug addiction rehabilitation and sexual violence treatment programs. However, he was acquitted of the false accusation charge.
In the second trial, the court dismissed the charges of special injury and violation of the sexual violence law, reducing his sentence to 1.5 years. The court determined that these charges were not directly related to the drug offenses and fell outside the scope of the prosecutor's investigation.
The second trial stated, "It is difficult to view that the investigating prosecutor naturally became aware of the offenses during the process of reviewing records or collecting additional evidence as the prosecutor for the preceding case."
However, the court maintained the first trial's ruling on the remaining drug-related charges and rejected the prosecutor's appeal regarding the acquittal of the false accusation charge.
Both the prosecutor and Yeom appealed the ruling, but the Supreme Court found no issues with the lower court's decision and dismissed the appeal.
Separately, Yeom was also sentenced to four years in prison for violating the Sexual Violence Punishment Act (threatening with recorded materials).
* This article has been translated by AI.
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