The Korea Herald

피터빈트

Court approves change in ex-spymaster's indictment

By 윤민식

Published : Oct. 30, 2013 - 11:26

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A Seoul court on Wednesday accepted state prosecutors' request to press additional charges against a former national intelligence chief accused of meddling in last year's presidential election.

Won Sei-hoon, who headed the National Intelligence Service (NIS) under former President Lee Myung-bak, was indicted in May on charges of leading an online smear campaign to sway public opinion ahead of the Dec. 19 poll in favor of the then ruling party candidate Park Geun-hye.

A team of state prosecutors investigating the case raised fresh allegations that the online campaign was not limited to comments posted on major Internet bulletin boards but extended to Twitter and other social network sites. Altogether, 55,000 such messages have been found posted or retweeted.

The Seoul Central District Court accepted the request from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to rewrite Won's indictment with the new charges. The prosecution office alleged that the former NIS chief had orchestrated the illegal online campaign as a whole. (Yonhap News)