ⓒYONHAP News

A Seoul appellate court upheld a two-year prison sentence for South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo, who was convicted of colluding to manipulate online opinions to assist President Moon Jae-in in the presidential polls ahead of the 2017 election. The governor, however, was found not guilty of violating the election law and his bail has been retained.

The Seoul High Court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo to two years in prison, on charges of manipulating online opinions in favor of President Moon Jae-in ahead of the 2017 presidential election.

The court, however, found Kim not guilty of violating the country's election law, a charge accepted by the lower court with a ten-month term suspended for two years.

The court also decided not to revoke Kim's bail, granted in April last year, citing the fact that he was found not guilty of some of the charges.

A confidant of Moon, Kim was indicted in August 2018 for colluding with a blogger known as "Druking" from November 2016 to artificially jack up the number of "likes" on online political comments to benefit Moon in the presidential poll.

The governor was also accused of violating the election law by secretly offering a consul general post in Sendai, Japan for an associate of the blogger.

In January last year, a lower court convicted Kim of all of the charges, ordering a two-year prison term for online rigging, while adding a ten-month term for the election law violation, with a stay of execution of two years.

While Kim's attendance at a presentation of the "King Crab" online rigging program at the blogger's office in November 2016 was the key focal point of the appeals court ruling, the court, on Friday, said his attendance has been proven beyond doubt.

With Kim found guilty of the opinion manipulation conviction, for now, he will not be considered a potential Democratic Party(DP) candidate to run for presidency in 2022. He still faces a Supreme Court ruling.