Kim Se-eui, head of the Garosero Research Institute, who is accused of defaming actor Kim Soo-hyun, appeared for a court detention review on the 26th.
At the Seoul Central District Court, Director General of warrants-only judge Bu Dong-sik held a pretrial detention hearing (substantive review of the warrant) for Kim in the morning on charges including violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (camera, etc., filming and distribution), as well as defamation, intimidation, and attempted coercion.
Arriving at the court around 10 a.m., Kim told reporters that Kim denies all charges. Kim said, "The detention warrant is a jumble of clearly false information," and claimed, "It's a shoddy document that doesn't even整理 the basic facts."
Kim went on to say, "The National Forensic Service said it was impossible to determine whether the transcript was manipulated by artificial intelligence (AI), while the private firm commissioned by Kim Soo-hyun's side said it was manipulated. Are they denying the National Forensic Service?" Kim said Kim will file a police complaint on the 27th against the police officers and prosecutors involved in seeking the detention warrant for offenses including distortion of the law.
Kim is accused of spreading on YouTube and elsewhere the false claim that Kim Soo-hyun dated Kim Sae-ron when she was a minor and that Kim Sae-ron's cause of death was pressure from Kim Soo-hyun's side to repay debt.
Kim is also accused of defaming Kim Soo-hyun by using AI to manipulate Kim Sae-ron's voice and fabricating it to say things like, "I first had sexual relations with Kim Soo-hyun during the winter break of my second year of middle school."
Kim held a press conference with Kim Sae-ron's bereaved family in Mar. last year and has advanced these claims. The Gangnam Police Station, which investigated the case, accepted Kim Soo-hyun's side's assertion that Kim manipulated the transcript using AI and sought a detention warrant for Kim on the 14th.
A decision on whether to detain Kim could come as early as late this afternoon.