Environment activist receives jail term on bribery conviction

Choi Yeol, 64, president of non-governmental environmental group Korea Green Foundation, was sentenced to a jail term for receiving bribes from real estate investors Friday.

The Supreme Court turned down Choi’s appeal and upheld a lower court’s ruling of a one-year jail term and a fine of 130 million won ($123,000).

Choi was indicted for receiving financial favors from a real estate investor who asked for help in an eco-friendly industrial park in Gyeonggi Province.

Choi arranged a meeting with Gyeonggi Provincial governor Kim Moon-soo and asked a director of the Agricultural Administration Bureau for cooperation in the project by the real estate investor.

He was, however, acquitted of charges of embezzling 260 million won from the KGF.

He had been sentenced to 8 months in prison with a suspended term of two years at the first trial in Jan 2011, raised to a year in prison term on appeal in Sept. 2011.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)