Suwon District Court has found leftist Unified Progressive Party lawmaker Lee Seok Ki guilty of plotting an armed rebellion against the South Korean
state.
Earlier today, Lee was imprisoned for twelve years and
stripped of his civic rights, including the right to vote and stand for public
office, for ten years after being found guilty of heading a secret underground
“Revolutionary Organization (RO)” and plotting to destroy key pieces of South
Korean infrastructure in the event of war with North Korea.
All remaining defendants were sentenced to between four and
seven years in prison and stripped of their civic rights for a similar period.
Lee denies the accusations against him, and has repeatedly branded the charges a politically motivated fabrication by the National Intelligence
Service (NIS) to distract attention from allegations of
illegality in the run up to the 2012 presidential election. However, the court
found that recordings of Lee and others making inflammatory statements during secret meetings in Seoul in May 2013 were “credible.”
Lee was also found guilty of violating
South Korea’s controversial National Security Law, which forbids private contact
with North Korea or praising the North Korean leadership and system.
Lee was previously imprisoned in 2002 for his role in
Minhyukdang, another pro-North Korea underground organization.
