South Korean President Kim Dae-jung's second son, Kim Hong-up, was yesterday sentenced to three and a half years in prison for corruption.
His lawyers said Kim Hong-up was convicted of accepting millions of dollars from businessmen through influence peddling and avoiding tax for political donations.
He was also slapped with 1.06 billion won (US$860,000) in fines for avoiding tax.
Lawyer Yoo Je-in said he would immediately appeal.
"We reject all the influence peddling charges. Hong-up did not engage in influence peddling and he did not know his associates received money by taking advantage of their acquaintance with him," Yoo said.
In handing down the jail sentence, Judge Kim Sang-kyun said: "The accused must be sternly punished as he committed crimes by taking advantage of his special status as a son of the president.
"But the court accepted it as mitigating circumstances that associates of the accused played leading roles in the crimes and the accused was not aware of details, including the amount of kickbacks involved," the judge said.
Kim Hong-up, 53, was arrested in June on charges of receiving a total 2.58 billion won (US$2.1 million) from six companies through influence peddling.
He was also accused of avoiding tax after taking another 2.2 billion won (US$1.8 million) from businesses including the Hyundai and Samsung groups as political "donations."
Prosecutors had requested a six-year jail sentence.
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