Lime Liquor Serving Prosecutor Revokes 'Not guilty'... "Possible to exceed KRW 1 million."

[Anchor] The Supreme Court overturned the ruling that acquitted an incumbent prosecutor who received so-called "room salon alcohol entertainment" from former Star Mobility Chairman Kim Bong-hyun, the main culprit of the
Lime incident.

The issue was whether the entertainment fee exceeded 1 million won per person subject to punishment, and the Supreme Court saw that the lower court did not calculate it properly.

Reporter Kim Chul-hee reports.

[Reporter]
In July 2019, Kim Bong-hyun, former chairman of Star Mobility, revealed that he had been serving alcohol to prosecutors of the special department at a luxury room salon in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul.

As public criticism grew, the prosecution set up a dedicated investigation team to conduct an investigation,

[Park Soon-cheol / Former Chief of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (last 2020): We will thoroughly investigate all cases in which additional suspicions have been raised, including ongoing cases.]

Prosecutor Na, a former prosecutor, lawyer Lee, and former chairman Kim, who were at the drinking party, were charged with violating the anti-graft law.

The first and second trials, however, found him not guilty one after another, saying that the amount of entertainment did not meet the "one million won per person," the standard for violating the solicitation prohibition law.

He accepted the defendant's claim that the price of alcohol per person was only about 940,000 won because there were 7 participants.

But the Supreme Court's judgment was different.

Considering the time of joining the drinking party and the time of stay, the amount of entertainment should be set differently for each participant.

The lower court believed that the 'basic alcohol price' of 2.4 million won should be divided into six people, including the former Blue House administrator who joined in the middle, but
The Supreme Court believes that the administrator who joined in the middle should be excluded from the calculation as the price of alcohol has already been provided at the start of the
drinking session.

The Supreme Court saw that if the entertainment expenses received by the prosecutor Na were recalculated, the possibility of exceeding 1 million won was considerable.

Attention is focusing on what judgment the revocation and remand will make on the case of alcohol entertainment by the incumbent prosecutor, which could not be punished for being short of 60,000 won.

I'm Kim Chulhee of YTN.

Reporter for shooting
: Choi Sung-hoon
Video editing: Kim Hyun-jun
Design: Kim Jin-ho