An appeals court on Wednesday upheld a three-year prison term for the sister-in-law of football player Hwang Ui-jo on charges of exposing the footballer’s private life and blackmail.
The woman was indicted for uploading explicit pictures and videos showing Hwang with women on Instagram while presenting herself as a former lover of Hwang in June last year.
She is also accused of blackmailing Hwang.
The defendant had squarely denied the charges against her right up to the trial, citing the possibility of her phone having been hacked, before submitting a hand-written apology to the judges admitting to the crime in February.
The Seoul High Court upheld the previous ruling and handed down the three-year prison term for her, saying she uploaded the videos knowing that they would be indiscreetly circulated resulting in its spreading widely within the country and overseas.
“The defendant knew that the victims would be hurt consistently and irreversibly, but still committed the crime definitely deliberately and
was not forgiven (by the victims),” the court said.
Hwang himself is under investigation on charges of filming a sexual encounter with a woman without consent.
Source: Yonhap News Agency