Appellate court reduces religious leader’s sentence to 17 yrs

A court of appeals on Wednesday reduced the prison sentence for Jeong Myeong-seok, the leader of a controversial religious organization, the Jesus Morning Star (JMS), to 17 years in his alleged sexual offense case. The Daejeon High Court in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, made the judgment of commutation for Jeong after accepting parts of his argument that his prior sentence of 23 years was unfair due to errors of facts and erroneous application of the law. In December last year, the Daejeon District Court sentenced Jeong to 23 years in prison after finding him guilty of sexual assault and molestation involving three victims. Prosecutors demanded an imprisonment of 30 years for him in his previous appeal trial in September, whereas Jeong's side denied the charges, saying the victims were not brainwashed or incapacitated. Jeong, who refers to himself as the Messiah, or the second coming of Jesus, was released in 2018 after serving 10 years in prison for raping a number of female followers and embe zzling funds from JMS. Source: Yonhap News Agency