A special prosecutor team led by Huh Ik-bum has demanded a five-year prison term for South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyoung-soo over his alleged involvement in an online opinion rigging scandal. 
 
At the final hearing on Friday, the team said Kim acted like a deviant politician by mobilizing a private group that engages in illegal acts and using public posts as bargaining chips for elections. 

Kim, a close aide to President Moon Jae-in, is accused of approving a blogger and his associates' development of a computer program called "King Crab," which could be used to manipulate the number of likes for online comments. 

The special counsel team believes Kim colluded with the blogger known as "druking" to manipulate comments on news articles with the program to benefit the ruling Democratic Party, then the opposition party, in the run-up to last year's presidential election. 

He is also suspected of having offered the Sendai consul general post to one of the blogger's associates, after they agreed to continue the operation until the local elections in June of this year.

Kim has denied all the allegations against him.

Earlier this week, the special prosecutors demanded a seven-year sentence for the blogger whose name is Kim Dong-won.

The sentencing for both trials is expected on January 25th.