[Newsmaker] Former President Lee's defense chief, aide indicted for political meddling

Three ranking officials under the previous Lee Myung-bak administration, including a former defense minister, were indicted Wednesday for involvement in the military cyberwarfare command's massive online maneuver aimed at swaying public opinion ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2012.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said it charged without physical detention Kim Kwan-jin, a former defense minister; Lim Kwan-bin, a former policy planning chief at the ministry; and Kim Tae-hyo, a former senior presidential secretary for external affairs and strategies.

Kim, who served as minister from late 2010 to June 2014, is accused of instructing the Cyber Command to write some 9,000 Internet comments in support of the conservative government and then ruling party candidate Park Geun-hye.

Former Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin answers reporters` questions at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors` Office on Feb. 27. (Yonhap)

Lim, who headed the policy planning department under Kim, was indicted on the same charge.

They were arrested in November but were released after a court granted defense motions to reconsider the legality of their arrest. The court also rejected prosecutors' request for an arrest warrant for former presidential secretary Kim the following month.

Prosecutors sought to arrest the former defense minister again early this month, but the request for a warrant was denied by the court, which cited little risk of him fleeing or destroying evidence.

He is also being investigated over allegations that he pressured ministry officials into scaling down an internal investigation into the covert operations in early 2014.

Former presidential secretary Kim was also investigated by prosecutors over separate allegations that he leaked a classified transcript of a 2007 inter-Korean summit. But prosecutors did not charge him due to a lack of evidence. (Yonhap)