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Monday, July 02, 2007, Jamadi-us-Sani 16, 1428 A.H.
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S Korea tycoon jailed for assault |
One of South Korea's richest businessmen, Kim Seung-youn, has been jailed for 18 months for abducting and assaulting workers in a karaoke bar.
Kim, 55, chairman of the Hanwha Group, was convicted of attacking the men with the aid of his bodyguards, after they had a scuffle with his 22-year-old son.
Kim admitted responsibility for much of the violence, but said his bodyguards took over when he "got tired".
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Correspondents say the case generated intense public interest in South Korea.
Heads of family-controlled business conglomerates, like Kim Seung-youn, wield great economic, political and social power in the country.
Passing sentence at Seoul District Court, the judge, Kim Chul-hwan, said the Hanwha chief had used his position to take revenge on the workers, carrying out the attacks in a "systematic manner".
"The violation of the law is big and is serious," said the judge.
During the trial, prosecutors had told the court that this was a revenge attack after a bar incident involving his son, Kim Dong-won, a Yale University student, who was reported to have needed stitches for an eye injury sustained in an incident in a Seoul karaoke club.
In the attacks which followed, staff in the karaoke club said they had been kicked, punched and attacked with a steel pipe and stun gun.
They also say they had been forcibly taken to be attacked at a construction site in a mountainous area near the capital.
"I ordered my bodyguards to take over because I got tired of beating them myself," Kim said in evidence at the trial.
Hanwha was formed in 1952, and has interests in petrochemicals, finance, insurance, construction and retail.
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