The head of a joint club called "Kkanbu," made up of students at major private universities in the greater Seoul area, who led the distribution and use of drugs, had a 1-year, 6-month prison sentence finalized by the Supreme Court.
According to legal sources on the 20th, the Supreme Court's Second Division (presiding Justice Kwon Young-jun) on Jan. 5 finalized the lower court's sentence of 1 year and 6 months in prison for a person surnamed Yeom (32), who was indicted on charges including violating the Narcotics Control Act, filming using a camera under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, and aggravated injury.
Yeom was brought to trial in July last year on charges of running a joint club centered on students from 13 universities in the greater Seoul area and leading group drug distribution and use for about a year starting at the end of 2022. Yeom was also accused of assaulting a girlfriend met through the club and threatening to distribute a sex video. Yeom was further charged with false accusation against a laundry business owner who tried to report the drug distribution and use.
The court of first instance found the drug charges and others guilty, sentencing Yeom to 3 years in prison and ordering a forfeiture of 13,426,000 won, along with completion of drug addiction rehabilitation education and a sex crime treatment program. However, it found not guilty on the false accusation charge.
On appeal, the court dismissed the indictment for the aggravated injury and the violation of the sex crime punishment law that the first trial had found guilty, and reduced the sentence to 1 year and 6 months in prison. It determined those crimes were not directly related to the drug offenses and fell outside the scope of the prosecutor's investigation. It upheld the first-instance judgment on the remaining drug charges and dismissed the prosecutor's appeal of the not-guilty ruling on the false accusation charge.
Both the prosecutor and the defendant appealed, but the Supreme Court saw no issue with the lower court's judgment and dismissed the appeals.
Meanwhile, Yeom has separately had a 4-year prison sentence finalized for a case involving violation of the sex crime punishment law (blackmail using recorded material).