전두환 '사자명예훼손' 징역 8개월 •집행유예 2년

South Korea's former President Chun Doo-hwan has been given an eight-month suspended prison sentence for libel... in a case related to his controversial memoirs.
In proving the libel charge, prosecutors showed that the military, under Chun's leadership, did in fact shoot civilians taking part in the Gwangju Pro-Democracy Movement, a fact which Chun had denied.
Kim Sung-min has the details.
Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, who led a military junta as dictator in the 1980s, has been given a suspended prison sentence of eight months... for defaming a now deceased Catholic priest, Cho Cheol-hyun.
In his 2017 memoir, Chun denied claims by Cho that during the Gwangju Pro-Democracy Movement... he saw soldiers in helicopters shooting at civilians, and he called the priest a "shameless liar."
Chun has continued to deny the libel charge since he was first indicted in 2018.
Prosecutors had called for a stronger sentence of 18 months.
In South Korea, a person can be convicted of criminal defamation even for statements that are true, but if someone is accused of defaming the dead, prosecutors have to prove that the statement is false.
So, the main issue of the trial was to prove whether or not troops actually were shooting at people from helicopters and that Chun, while defaming the victim, knew that the incident had in fact happened.
The court said that the testimony of eight out of 16 witnesses was backed up by sufficient evidence.
Over the past two years, the ex-president frequently skipped hearings at the Gwangju District Court and rejected several court summons..., claiming he has dementia.
According to official data, the military junta led by Chun killed more than 200 people in Gwangju and wounded 1,800 others.
Kim Sung-min, Arirang News