Im Woo-jae, a former executive at Samsung Electro-Mechanics who was court-ordered to detention last year for aiding his shaman girlfriend in evading police investigation following her confinement, assault, and intimidation of an elderly person in their 80s, has been released on a suspended sentence by an appellate court.
The Seoul High Court sentenced Im, who was charged with obstruction of justice by deception, to one year in prison, suspended for two years, yesterday (June 25).
He had been sentenced to one year in prison and taken into court custody during his first trial last December.
At the moment the presiding judge announced the suspended sentence, Im, standing in the defendant's seat wearing a yellow prison uniform with long hair reaching his chin, bowed his head deeply.
Im, who graduated from Dankook University with a degree in electronic data processing and joined Samsung Electronics in 1995, married Lee Boo-jin, the eldest daughter of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee and president of Hotel Shilla, in August 1999.
Having garnered significant attention for the "marriage between an ordinary employee and a conglomerate heiress," he later served as vice president and standing advisor at Samsung Electro-Mechanics.
However, in October 2014, 15 years after their marriage, President Lee filed for divorce mediation, and the divorce was finalized by the Supreme Court in 2020 after a lengthy legal battle.
President Lee paid Im 14.113 billion won in property division, and she was granted parental rights and custody of their son.
Im, once dubbed a "male Cinderella," ended up in court due to a "confinement and assault case involving a woman in her 80s" that occurred in Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi Province, last year.
Im's girlfriend, a shaman surnamed Park whom he began dating after his divorce, was indicted for confining and assaulting an 84-year-old acquaintance along with her own grandson in April last year. Im was charged with assisting Park and obstructing the police investigation during the process.
During the final hearing of his appellate trial last month, Im stated, "I have tried my whole life not to cause harm to others, and I never dreamed I would end up standing in court at this age," adding, "I only now realize how great a happiness it is to be able to move about freely."
He further added that he would live his life serving others in the future.
Im was born in 1968 and is 58 years old this year.
The appellate court explained its decision regarding Im, stating, "His level of involvement cannot be considered minor," but added, "He did not act with full knowledge of the entire situation, nor did he gain any profit from the crime, so we are releasing him with a suspended sentence."
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