A, the former daughter-in-law of Ryu Joong-il, former manager of South Korea's national baseball team, moves through a hotel lobby with her student B in January last year. [Yonhap]
A, the former daughter-in-law of Ryu Joong-il, former manager of South Korea's national baseball team, moves through a hotel lobby with her student B in January last year. [Yonhap]

A man who secretly installed a home security camera in the newlywed home of the son of former national baseball team manager Ryu Joong-il and recorded private conversations was acquitted at trial, but an appeals court overturned that verdict Friday.

The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 11-3, presided over by judges Kang Hyo-won, Kim Tae-ho and Park Seon-young, reversed the acquittal and sentenced A, the former brother-in-law of Ryu's son, to one year in prison, suspended for two years, on charges of violating the Protection of Communications Secrets Act. The court also ordered 120 hours of community service.

However, the court dismissed prosecutors' appeal against B, the former father-in-law of Ryu's son, who faced the same charges, and upheld his acquittal.

"A claims he had no intent to record audio, but having installed a home camera equipped with both video and audio recording functions and having activated the audio recording feature, his intent cannot be denied," the court said.

The court also rejected A's argument that the conversations recorded were not specifically identified. "In most cases involving private conversations between others, the parties and circumstances cannot be known in advance, right up until the moment of recording," the court said. It added that the conversations of Ryu's son were captured through the camera's automatic audio recording function triggered by A's installation of the device.

The court further rejected A's claim that his actions were justified as a means of protecting his sister. "There was no necessity to go as far as recording audio," the court said. "The legitimacy of the audio recording itself cannot be recognized, as the purpose of preventing a crime could have been sufficiently achieved through video recording alone."

As for B, the former father-in-law, the court maintained the acquittal, saying the evidence prosecutors submitted was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had conspired with A to install the camera.

The two were indicted on charges of entering the home of Ryu's son — who had been away from the residence due to a separation — and installing a camera with audio recording capability to record private conversations.

The dispute arose after allegations emerged that Ryu's former daughter-in-law had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with one of her high school students.

Ryu filed a petition on the National Assembly's public consent petition board on Dec. 4 last year, claiming his former daughter-in-law, then a teacher, was suspected of maintaining an inappropriate relationship with a student, including visiting hotels together. He also alleged that his grandson had accompanied them to hotels on multiple occasions, causing him great pain and shock.

The former daughter-in-law's side has maintained there was no inappropriate relationship, describing the hotel stays as group trips with students.

Prosecutors declined to indict the former daughter-in-law on child abuse charges last November, citing insufficient evidence.

In their decision, prosecutors said the student had refused to submit a DNA sample and the court had declined to authorize a forced collection, making it impossible to conclusively determine whether DNA found on the former daughter-in-law's clothing belonged to the student.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com