Prosecutors requested a seven-year prison sentence and an W8 billion fine for Kim Byung-kwan, the former honorary chairman of the Donga Ilbo at Seoul District Criminal Court, Monday, on charges of embezzlement and tax evasion. They also called for a six-year sentence and a W10 billion fine on Kim Byung-keon, former vice-president of the daily, while asking for the company to be fines W1 billion.
Prosecutors again failed to deliver a case summation, merely presenting their request to the judges in writing.
A final hearing will be held on February 4.
In a statement, Kim Byung-kwan said that the tax probe by the National Tax Service was started with the impure motives of taming media critical of the government. He continued that it was implemented because the Donga Ilbo criticized the government's management fiascos and North Korean policy. Kim added that during the tax investigation, his wife committed suicide "to defend the newspaper and him, and her death will not have been in vain."
He said, however, that he was humbly repentant of any mistakes that occurred fue to inattentive accounting practices.
(Lee Myong-jin, mjlee@chosun.com)
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