S. Korea's former police chief convicted of defaming late president

A former South Korean police chief was sentenced to 10 months in jail and was immediately imprisoned Wednesday for defaming late former president Roh Moo-hyun.

The Seoul Central District Court convicted Cho Hyun-oh, who formerly led the National Police Agency, of posthumously defaming the ex-president by claiming he kept a slush fund in bank accounts under borrowed names.

Cho, 57, made such claims in 2010 during a meeting with police officials, prompting Roh's family and former aides to sue him for defaming the former president, who committed a suicide in 2009 amid what they called politically motivated corruption probe allegedly implicating his family.

The bank accounts, which belonged to two former presidential office staffers, contained only a few hundreds of thousand won and the transaction records showed it had nothing to do with the former president, according to the court.

Cho's claim that he heard of the bank accounts from "someone reliable" was never verified.

"The defendant gave little hid to his influential position and frivolously spread false rumors in a public lecture," the court said. "The defendant's claim brought about too big a national divide, and the prosecution was unduly criticized by the public."

Cho should come clean about the source of the rumor if he is indeed sure that the late president kept a slush fund, the court added.

"The court verdict today is judgment by the people on Cho's reckless remarks and his premeditated criminal act," the main opposition Democratic United Party said during a briefing. "We hope this decision will help restore Roh's honor."

The Roh Moo-hyun foundation, run by the late president's aides, also welcomed the verdict but criticized media for reporting Cho's ungrounded claims without verifying them.

"The irresponsible reporting by some media outlets severely damaged the late president's reputation," the foundation said in a statement. "They should apologize for that."

The former police commissioner, who was nominated in 2010 by Roh's predecessor Lee Myung-bak, resigned last year over a bungled murder case.