According to the legal industry, a sentencing hearing was held on November 27 for Kim Mo (39), who was indicted for defamation at the Seoul Central District Court, Criminal Division 16, located in Seocho-gu, Seoul .
The prosecution requested a four-month prison sentence for Kim.
Kim was charged for posting four malicious comments in April 2022, which belittled IU’s singing ability and stage outfits.
Kim argued, “I was simply expressing personal preferences” and “I suffer from a mental illness, which affects my writing ability,” asking for leniency.
The verdict in the first trial is scheduled for December 3.
IU has consistently taken a strong legal stance against malicious commenters. On November 11, his agency, EDAM Entertainment, released an update on criminal complaints for 2023-2024.
The agency said: “There have been over 180 defendants to date, with further lawsuits underway,” and explained, “There were six cases resulting in fines (summary sanctions), three cases of deferred prosecution with conditions of completion of education and one case of deferred prosecution with conditions of probation service.”
The agency continued, “We have also protected personal information about some individuals who use foreign servers for illegal activities or who reside abroad. Among them, some are suspected of being IU’s former middle school classmates, and despite the ongoing investigation, they continued to harass IU. We are currently addressing this issue. Malicious commenters using foreign IP addresses or residing abroad, we have requested the cooperation of the relevant agencies and the investigation to track them down has made progress clemency”.
