Lee, a 54-year-old sister-in-law, who was also fined on appeal for allegedly spreading false information about TV personality Park Soo-hong's private life, appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.
According to legal sources on the 27th, Lee's side filed a notice of appeal with the Seoul Western District Court that day. On Aug. 23, the court in the appeals trial for Lee, who was indicted on charges of defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, imposed the same fine as the first trial: 12 million won.
Lee was brought to trial on charges of spreading messages containing false information, including that Park lived with a woman while he was active on television, in a KakaoTalk group chat room. Lee was also charged with making claims to the effect that Park lied by saying his sister-in-law and older brother embezzled his money, and slandering him.
During the trial, Lee's side argued, "It was only a defensive response to explain the unfairness, and there was no intent to slander."
Earlier, the first-instance court found that Lee spread false information with the intent to slander Park and judged the nature of the crime to be poor, sentencing Lee to a fine of 12 million won.