A local appeals court on Friday released a police officer, accused of leaking presidential documents, after handing down a suspended jail term.

The Seoul High Court sentenced the police inspector, identified only by his surname Han, to a year in prison suspended for one year for copying documents he found in an office and leaking them to another police officer, who was later found dead in an apparent suicide.

A lower court had sentenced Han to a year in prison.

While finding the 46-year-old guilty of the charges, the appeals court said it took into consideration that he had been faithful to his duties for the last 18 years and that it was his first time working in information management when he committed the crime.

In October, the Seoul Central District Court found former presidential secretary Cho Eung-cheon and senior police officer Park Kwan-cheon not guilty of violating the Presidential Records Management Act, noting the leaked documents cannot be seen as presidential records since they were all copies. (Yonhap)