Im Woo-jae released after appeals court reduces sentence to suspended term in elderly confinement case

Im Woo-jae, a former adviser at Samsung Electro-Mechanics who had been sentenced to prison in the first trial over the confinement and assault of a woman in her 80s, was released Thursday after an appeals court reduced his sentence to a suspended term. Im is the ex-husband of Lee Boo-jin, president of Hotel Shilla.

The 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court on Thursday sentenced Im to one year in prison, suspended for two years, on charges including obstruction of official duties through deception. The first trial had sentenced Im to one year in prison and ordered his immediate detention. With the suspended sentence handed down Thursday, Im was released immediately.

Im's co-defendants — a shaman identified only as A, who was Im's romantic partner, and the victim's grandson — received sentences of five years and two years and four months in prison, respectively. Both had their sentences reduced from the first trial, where they received six years and three years, respectively.

The appeals court found that Im was an accessory to the false missing-persons report rather than a co-principal. The court determined he had not carried out the crime alongside the main perpetrators but had merely provided material and moral support.

"Im passively participated in the crime," the court said, adding that it considered the fact that he had not directly taken part in filing the false missing-persons report and had not personally benefited from the offenses.

Im had been charged with involvement in a false missing-persons report related to the confinement and assault of an elderly woman in Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi Province, in April last year. According to the facts established by the court, shaman A exerted psychological influence over the victim's grandson, identified as B, inducing him to confine and assault his grandmother.

The court also found that A used the victim's granddaughter to stage a fabricated missing-persons incident to obstruct the police investigation, and that Im aided the scheme by driving the parties involved. However, unlike the first trial, which found Im a co-principal in that offense, the appeals court held that he bore only accessory liability.

The court also reduced the sentences of A and the grandson, citing A's settlement with the victim during the appeals process and the grandson's acknowledgment that he had acted under A's psychological influence.

Im, who started his career as a rank-and-file employee, married Lee Boo-jin in August 1999 and divorced her after litigation spanning more than five years that began in 2014.