Court finds controversial on-line pundit 'not guilty'

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details of ruling, reaction from Park's attorney at bottom)
SEOUL, April 20 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court on Monday acquitted a controversial
on-line pundit accused of causing financial losses to the country by spreading
misleading information.
Park Dae-sung, 30, better known by his Internet alias "Minerva," was arrested in
early January and was indicted on charges of spreading on-line rumors that the
government ordered local banks not to buy U.S. dollars as part of efforts to
stabilize the local currency.
The prosecution claims the posting in December led to dollar hoarding, forcing
the government to hurriedly inject $2 billion to stabilize the currency market.
The prosecution had sought an 18-month prison term.
"When considering all the circumstances, it is hard to conclude that Park was
aware the information was misleading when he wrote the postings," Justice Yoo
Young-hyun of the Seoul Central District Court said in the ruling.
The judge also said that even if Park had realized that the information was
false, it cannot be concluded that he had the intent to hurt public interest,
considering the circumstances at the time or the special characteristics of the
foreign exchange market.
Kim Gab-bae, Park's legal representative, welcomed the ruling as truly
meaningful, having been reached "based on evidence."
"It did not misinterpret the law to infringe upon the people right to freedom of
expression," he said.
It was not immediately known whether the prosecution planned to appeal.
The court rejected the prosecution's argument directly linking the dollar
hoarding as a consequence of Park's posting and said the amount of damage
incurred on the government cannot be quantified monetarily, even if the defendant
was partly responsible for the depreciation of the won at that particular time.
Minerva's sensational postings gained a massive following after he accurately
predicted the collapse of U.S. lending giant Lehman Brothers last year. He
followed up with a series of pieces criticizing the government's economic
policies, which spread quickly through the Internet in one of the world's most
wired nations.
odissy@yna.co.kr
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