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Activist-turned-lawmaker faces expulsion after sentencing

Published: 20 Sep. 2023, 16:24

Lawmaker Yoon Mee-hyang responds to questions from the press in front of Seoul High Court in southern Seoul on Wednesday after the court convicted her of embezzling donations meant to support victims of the Japanese military's wartime sexual slavery. [YONHAP]

Lawmaker Yoon Mee-hyang may lose her seat after a court sentenced her Wednesday for embezzling donations meant for victims of the Japanese military's wartime sexual slavery.

The sentence on Wednesday, a suspended sentence and an 80 million won ($60,240) fine, was heavier than what she received in her first trial in February, when she was fined 15 million won.

“Although she should have thoroughly managed the funds collected to support comfort women victims, she not only failed to meet this expectation but even embezzled the money, causing damage to citizens who supported the Korean Council,” said the court in its ruling Wednesday, using the euphemism for victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery. “And to this day she has failed to compensate them for their losses.”

Laws in Korea stipulate that any lawmaker convicted and sentenced at court become ineligible to remain in office. Suspended sentences are included.

Rep. Yoon, an independent lawmaker and the former head of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance, was indicted in September 2020 on eight charges including fraud, embezzlement and breach of trust.

She was found partially guilty of one of the charges regarding embezzling donations from the civic group in her first trial, and fined but not sentenced to imprisonment.

The second trial was held after the prosecution appealed.

The court this time found her additionally guilty of misappropriating condolence money collected at the funeral of comfort woman survivor Kim Bok-dong in 2019 and using it for unrelated purposes, as well as for embezzling tens of millions of won of government funds, including from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

Yoon told the press on Wednesday that she will file for an appeal.

“I will do my best in the remaining period of time to ensure that 30 years of work to resolve the comfort women issue is not disparaged due to this incident,” she said.

Yoon, a longtime activist for comfort women survivors, came under intense scrutiny in May 2020 when Lee Yong-soo, a comfort woman survivor, publicly accused Yoon of exploiting her and other victims for decades.

Yoon at the time was a proportional lawmaker of the liberal Democratic Party, having been elected to the office a month earlier.

After she was accused of misappropriating donations and government subsidies meant for the victims during her time as head of the Korean Council, collecting it in her private bank accounts and using it for personal matters, her party suspended her membership and later expelled her from the party in June 2021.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [[email protected]]