(Yonhap)
Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a four-year prison sentence for Kim Ki-choon, former chief of staff to ousted President Park Geun-hye, for allegedly abusing his power during Park's rule to favor conservative groups, in a retrial of his case at the Seoul High Court.
Kim was indicted for pressuring the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), a business lobby group, into providing 6.9 billion won ($5.8 million) to 33 pro-government organizations between 2014 and 2016.
An appeals court had sentenced Kim to 18 months in prison for power abuse in the so-called white list scandal. But the Supreme Court ordered the Seoul High Court in February to review its earlier ruling, saying his pressure on the FKI did not constitute an extortion.
Demanding the four-year sentence for the 82-year-old Kim in his retrial, prosecutors said briefly that the white list case's constitutional meaning and social impact have already been proven by the Supreme Court's ruling.
Kim had already spent 562 days behind bars after being convicted of drafting a blacklist of artists critical of the conservative Park government and was released from prison last December after being imprisoned for an additional 425 days in connection with the white list scandal.
During the retrial, Kim's lawyers appealed for leniency from the court, saying the support for conservative organizations was in accordance with the government's policy decisions and was not gravely unlawful nor severely criticized.
The lawyers also brought attention to Kim's old age and frail health, as well as to his prolonged imprisonment in the past. Kim himself asked for a lenient ruling from the judges after expressing his respect for their hard work.
In the same retrial, prosecutors also demanded a prison term of three years for Hyun Ki-hwan, former senior presidential secretary for political affairs, over his alleged involvement in the white list scandal.
Prosecutors had also demanded a three-year jail term for Cho Yoon-sun, another former senior presidential secretary for political affairs who had also served as Park's culture minister, in an earlier retrial of the white list case.
The appellate court's sentencing hearing for the three is slated for June 26. (Yonhap)