SEOUL, December 15 (AJP) - Noh Sang-won, former chief of South Korea's military intelligence unit, was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday for privacy violations and other charges related to disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law debacle last year.
The Seoul Central District Court found Noh guilty of gathering personnel information as well as accepting bribes. He was also fined 24.9 million Korean won (US$17,000).
It was the first verdict among cases related to the debacle investigated by independent prosecutors led by Cho Eun-suk, who had sought a three-year prison sentence for Noh.
Noh was accused of illegally obtaining military personnel data between September and December last year to form a unit investigating election fraud, and of accepting cash and gift vouchers in exchange for promotions.
The court ruled that Noh had prepared for Yoon's Dec. 3 martial law declaration, saying his actions and inappropriate use of data were gravely serious and could not be dismissed as mere privacy breaches.
Noh avoided a harsher sentence as the court granted leniency, considering that the data was not leaked outside the military and the bribery attempt failed.
* This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.
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