[Yonhap Photo]
SEOUL, Jan. 23 (Aju News) -- Former culture minister Cho Yoon-sun, once seen as one of South Korea's most successful and envied career women, was thrown back into prison Tuesday for her role in blacklisting outspoken artists and cultural figures.
Cho, who served as culture minister when ex-president Park Geun-hye was ousted, received a suspended prison sentence six months after a lower court ruled that she was not involved in managing and creating the blacklist.
An appeals court reversed the lower court's decision on Tuesday and sentenced her to two years in prison.
Originally, five former presidential aides and government officials received prison sentences of up to three years for blacklisting artists and cultural figures regarded by the conservative government of jailed ex-president Park Geun-hye who is on trial on multiple charges.
The list included famous movie director Park Chan-wook, who won the grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004, and Ko Un, a poet and routine candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
On Tuesday, the Seoul High Court raised the jail sentence for Kim Ki-choon who served as Park's chief aide from three years to four years. The court upheld the previous verdicts against other defendants.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
