SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- The former South Korean spy agency chief was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison for his order of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) officials to meddle in the 2012 presidential election.
The Seoul High Court sentenced former NIS head Won Sei-hoon, who led the spy agency from 2009 to 2013 under former President Lee Myung-bak, to four years in jail.
He was immediately taken into custody at the court.
Two former senior NIS officials, who had been accused of election intervention, were sentenced to a suspended prison term of two and a half years.
Won was convicted of violating both the NIS act and the election law, which ban public officials from engaging in election campaign activities.
The court acknowledged that Won had ordered NIS officials to use 391 Twitter accounts to post online comments against then opposition candidates and in favor of the then ruling party candidate Park Geun-hye during the 2012 presidential election.
Park narrowly defeated then main opposition candidate Moon Jae-in, who won this year's presidential by-election.
Won was sentenced by a low court to a suspended jail term, but the appeals court overturned it, sentencing Won to three years in prison.
The Supreme Court quashed the appeals court's ruling, and ordered a re-trial to the appeals court. The Seoul High Court put the former spy agency chief again behind bars.
According to the NIS internal investigation, Won was found to have ordered the operation of up to 30 illegal teams, involving Internet-savvy civilians, for smear campaign against then-liberal presidential candidate Moon Jae-in in the 2012 election.
The internal investigation result showed Won ordering the influence on parliamentary elections in 2012 and ordering money to be offered to right-leaning civic groups.
