After eight years, Korean celebrity Bae Suzy has finally won a case against a man who posted a sexually explicit comment about her on social media in 2015.
According to multiple South Korean news outlets, the 40-year-old perpetrator who has not been named was found guilty by the Supreme Court in South Korea, this week.
According to an article on the South Korean news website soompi.com: “On July 27, the Supreme Court Division 3 (Chief Justice Ahn Cheol Sang) dismissed the second appeal made by the malicious commenter who was on trial on the charges of insult, and was fined 500,000 Korean Won (Dh1,442)."
Previously, Suzy Bae’s agency had sued the man for some sexually explicit comments that he had posted about the singer and actor, between October and December in 2015.
During the first trial, the man was sentenced to a fine of 1 million Korean Won (Dh2885). He pleaded ‘not guilty’ and demanded a retrial.
However, during the second trial, the judgment was overturned. According to an article on naver.com, the judgment said that the comments were not at the “level of punishment according to social norms”.
The trial was moved to South Korea’s highest court due to the prosecution’s appeal.
The Supreme Court said: “[The comment] reveals the victim's private life and suggests the opposite image of the innocent image that the victim has presented to the public in the past... It can be evaluated as a contemptuous expression that can lower the social evaluation of the victim, who is a female celebrity, and it is difficult to see it as a justifiable act as it is out of the scope of legitimate criticism.”
The Supreme Court returned the case to the Seoul Northern District Court, which sentenced the man to a fine of 500,000 Won (Dh1,442).
Although the man appealed again, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal on the same day, stating that the original judgment is justified.
Loved for her cute, innocent, and girl-next-door image, Suzy Bae holds the title of 'Nation's First Love’ in South Korea.
Currently, Suzy is gearing up for an upcoming romance drama ‘Doona’.
She will also reunite with actor Kim Woo-bin in a new K-drama by South Korean screenwriter Kim Eun-sook, who wrote the popular television dramas The Heirs, Descendants of the Sun, Guardian, Lovers in Paris, On Air, Secret Garden, and A Gentleman's Dignity.
