GREAT NEWS!!!! Jung, Myoung-seok got 10 years in prison!!!!!

[dikaioma]

Yeah~~~! what a news we got here!!!! Jung the bastard got 10 years in prison!!!
Also the judge denied the bail Jung has asked.

[anti_jms_hk]

Is it real or not, because I need to post the new on my blog! Can you also write down the detail ex:time & place! Thanks so much!

[rb]

Yup, it's real. There are Korean articles about it. 10 years.

[Peter]

I've seen about 4 Korean news article published in the last hour or so.
Here's one, and Koreablog.com will be doing a translation:

JMS 정명석, 항소심서 징역 10년  (10 years)

JMS 정명석 총재가 항소심에서 징역 10년의 중형을 선고받았습니다.
서울고법 형사 9부는 지난 2001년부터 말레이시아와 중국 등에서 한국인 여신도 5명을 성폭행한 혐의로 구속기소된 JMS 정명석 총재에게 징역 10년을 선고했습니다.

재판부는 1심에서 무죄가 선고된 여신도 1명에 대한 강제추행 혐의를 인정하는 등 여신도 4명에 대한 혐의를 유죄로 판단했습니다.

정 씨는 2001년 출국했다가 중국에서 체포돼 범죄인 인도청구에 따라 송환됐고, 1심에서 징역 6년이 선고됐습니다.

 

[rb]

There are 19 short articles in Korean similar to that in the last 2 hours. There's also an SBS video (no new footage). Hopefully there will be some longer ones & non-Korean ones.

[rb]

AFP article

 SEOUL - A SOUTH Korean cult leader who told followers to have sex with him to purge their sins was jailed for 10 years on Tuesday.

Jeong Myeong-Seok - whose JMS sect stands for both Jesus Morning Star and his initials - was convicted of raping or sexually assaulting four women between 2001 and 2006.

An appeal court added four years to a lower court's sentence of six years.

'The accused committed serious wrongdoing by taking advantage of his status as a religious leader,' the court said in a statement, adding the victims were 'hurt severely.' The court was crowded with some 70 of Jeong's followers, some sighing and others shedding tears at the sentence, media reports said.

Jeong, now in his early 60s, fled South Korea in 1999, one day after rape allegations against him were broadcast on national television. He was formally charged in absentia with rape in 2001.

The cult leader was arrested in Hong Kong in 2003 for visa violations but later fled an extradition hearing. China extradited him to Seoul in February last year.

The offences for which Jeong was convicted were committed with followers while he was on the run overseas, but South Korean courts said they had jurisdiction because his victims were Koreans.

Former cult members, mostly young girls, have told police they were instructed to undress for health checks and to have sex with Jeong to expunge their sins.

The girls said they were threatened with spiritual death if they spoke of what happened, according to previous media reports.

News reports have said Jeong, who founded his cult in the late 1980s, was still believed to have thousands of followers.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Asia/Story/STIStory_336458.html
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20090210-120829.html
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=12484&icid=4&d_str=20090210 (shortened)
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=78076&sid=22642757&con_type=1 (next day, long)
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23254/jeong-myeong-seok
http://wwrn.org/article.php?idd=30246
http://igetpissed.net/?p=577 (blog)

[rb]

Korea Herald

A Korean cult leader who told followers to have sex with him to purge their sins was jailed for 10 years on Tuesday, AFP reported.

Jeong Myeong-Seok, whose JMS sect stands for both Jesus Morning Star and his initials, was convicted of raping or sexually assaulting four women between 2001 and 2006. An appeal court added four years to a lower court's sentence of six years.

"The accused committed serious wrongdoing by taking advantage of his status as a religious leader," the court said in a statement, adding the victims were "hurt severely."

Jeong, now in his early 60s, fled Korea in 1999, one day after rape allegations against him were broadcast on national television. He was formally charged in absentia with rape in 2001.

The cult leader was arrested in Hong Kong in 2003 for visa violations but later fled an extradition hearing. China extradited him to Seoul in February last year.

The offences for which Jeong was convicted were committed with followers while he was on the run overseas, but Korean courts said they had jurisdiction because his victims were Koreans.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/02/10/200902100108.asp

[rb]

Here is a longer Korean one, maybe Koreabeat can translate this instead:
http://www.chtoday.co.kr/view.htm?id=200790

[scarlett]

Wow,

Can't believe this actually happened after 10 years, he gets 10 years.  It will be very interesting how members try to explain this one away. 

[rb]

AP picked it up. Crummy article.

SEOUL, Feb. 10 (AP) - (Kyodo)—A Seoul High Court on Tuesday sentenced the founder of a cult with a following in Japan to a 10-year jail term, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Jung Myung Seok, 64, the leader of the Jesus Morning Star sect, was convicted on charges of sexually assaulting five South Korean followers from 2001 to 2006 in Malaysia, Hong Kong and China, Yonhap said.

Jung was extradited to South Korea from China in 2007 after fleeing overseas in 2001.

He received a six-year jail term in a lower court.

In January 2007, Japanese police stormed facilities connected to the Japanese arm of the cult called "Setsuri," which means providence, in the city of Chiba near Tokyo on suspicion that a senior member, a South Korean woman, obtained her resident status illegally.

It is believed Setsuri was established in South Korea around 1980 and became active in Japan around 1987.

There are reportedly more than 2,000 followers of the cult in Japan.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D968H5P80&show_article=1
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D968IOQG0&show_article=1

[rb]

Korea Beat translated an article:
http://koreabeat.com/?p=3788

[rb]

There hasn't been many media articles so far. But to celebrate, I have made the new smiley 

The cult will obviously spin this, so it is interesting to see what was said before the conviction (this was when Jung arrived in Korea after being arrested):

Pastor Bae Jae-yong said "He has never been directly involved with the finances as he manages the congregation, so his embezzlement charge is just a groundless rumor. The rape charge is also a distorted rumor that was made by the people who have slandered him. Everything is different from the truth, and all fundamental truth will be clarified by him at the prosecutor's office" (see thread)

 

[Peter]

One more, from Hong Kong
Cult leader gets 10 years for rape
(02-10 12:53)
A South Korean cult leader who told followers to have sex with him to purge their sins was jailed for 10 years.

Jeong Myeong Seok, whose JMS sect stands for both Jesus Morning Star and his initials, was convicted of raping or sexually assaulting four women between 2001 and 2006.

An appeal court added four years to a lower court's sentence of six years.

The court was crowded with some 70 of Jeong's followers, some sighing and others shedding tears at the sentence, media reports said.

(Oops RB, I just realised you already linked to that)

[rb]

The articles say it was in the Seoul High Court... not the highest court. Will there be another appeal?

[Peter]

The articles say it was in the Seoul High Court... not the highest court. Will there be another appeal?

It could go to the Superme Court. I asked Dikaioma about it today and he said it's possible but the length of sentence couldn't be changed.  I guess that rules out an appeal by the prosecution for a longer sentence.
I'm sure Jeong has the cash for another appeal. And I'm sure him and his followers are still deluded enough to think all this could one day disappear.