Military officers sentenced to prison terms for illicit surveillance of civilians

SEOUL, April 2 (Yonhap) -- A military court on Thursday sentenced two officers of a now-disbanded military intelligence agency to prison terms for abusing their power by illicitly inspecting families of victims in a 2014 ferry sinking, it said.

The defense ministry's general military court handed down 18-month and 12-month prison terms to the two officers of the now-defunct Defense Security Command for ordering monitoring of the victims' families to minimize the political impact of the incident that left more than 300 passengers dead or missing.

The defendants have denied the allegations.

Following a series of accusations over political interference and other misdeeds, such as the surveillance of civilians, South Korea disbanded the security intelligence unit and launched a new organization, the Defense Security Support Command, in 2018.

scaaet@yna.co.kr
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