Prosecutors have demanded a six-year prison term for South Gyeongsang Province governor Kim Kyoung-soo during an appeals trial after Kim received a prison sentence in the first trial on charges of manipulating public opinion.
In a hearing held on Thursday at the Seoul High Court, a team of investigators led by independent counsel Huh Ik-bum requested a sentence of three and a half years in prison for charges of tampering with online comments and another two and a half years for violating the Public Official Election Act.
It's one year more than the five-year prison term the prosecution originally demanded in the first trial.
The special counsel team said Kim has been changing his statements and displaying an attitude of denial and evasion despite objective evidence and testimonies.
Kim was indicted on charges of illegal manipulation of public opinions. He's believed to have used a macro program to generate online comments in collusion with a power blogger nicknamed "Druking" and his associates in late 2016, in order to help certain Democratic Party presidential candidates.
The governor has denied all the charges noting that he has never seen the macro program or colluded with Druking and is unaware of any crime related to online comments.
In the first trial, the court found him guilty on all the counts and sentenced him to two years in prison.
He was later freed on bail and has been standing trial in the appeals case without detention.