South Korea top court upholds conviction of 'comfort women' activist over embezzlement

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's Supreme Court upheld on Thursday the conviction of the former head of an advocacy group representing victims of Japan's wartime sexual abuse for embezzlement and sentenced her to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years.

Yoon Mee-hyang was indicted in 2020 on charges of fraud and embezzlement during her time as chief of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, better known as Jungdaehyup.

The group supports surviving "comfort women" - a Japanese euphemism for those forced to work in wartime brothels during Japan's colonisation of the Korean peninsula in 1910 to 1945.

A Seoul district court in February 2023 ruled that Yoon embezzled at least 17 million won ($12,000) of organisation funds raised through donations and fined her 15 million won, but cleared her of most other charges.

Seven months later, an appeal court convicted her of illegally receiving state subsidies and raising donations and embezzling more than 79 million won, handing her an 18-month suspended prison sentence.

The Supreme Court in a statement confirmed the higher court verdict.

Yoon, who stepped down from Jungdaehyup before her 2020 indictment to run for parliament and was an opposition lawmaker until last May, issued a statement criticising the verdict as "unfair" and saying she was innocent. She has previously apologised for what she described as banking errors and causing controversy but denied the charges.

The group said in a statement it will return government subsidies in line with the ruling, but expressed regret that the court had accepted what it called the prosecutors' excessive accusations.

The case triggered a public outcry when it was initiated after Lee Yong-soo, an activist and one of the last living survivors forced into Japanese military brothels, accused Yoon of exploiting the women to amass government funds and public donations while spending little money on them.

Some lawmakers and activists criticised Yoon for seeking a seat in parliament as a member of the main opposition Democratic Party even as she faced trial.

The party had initially accused prosecutors of orchestrating a "witch hunt" but expelled her in 2021 over allegations of real estate speculation.

President Yoon Suk Yeol's ruling People Power Party welcomed the top court decision, which would have stripped her of the lawmaker post, but regretted that the years-long legal process meant she was able to complete her four-year term.

A Supreme Court official said some cases require a lengthy review and it never intended to postpone the deliberations out of "political calculations". ($1 = 1,408.0500 won)

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Ed Davies and Kate Mayberry)