Ahn Hee-jung, once a rising political star, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison on Friday. His former secretary had accused him of rape.
SEOUL, South Korea — An appeals court in South Korea sentenced a former presidential hopeful to three and a half years in prison for sexual assault on Friday, overturning a lower court’s acquittal in a case closely watched by supporters of the #MeToo movement.
The politician, Ahn Hee-jung, is the best known among a number of public figures who have been accused of sexual misconduct since the #MeToo movement gained force in heavily male-dominated South Korea early last year. A lower court in Seoul acquitted Mr. Ahn last August, saying there was not enough evidence to support the charges against him.
But the Seoul High Court threw out that ruling on Friday, convicting Mr. Ahn of raping his secretary, Kim Ji-eun, at least nine times between July 2017 and last February, while he was governor of South Chungcheong Province.
Mr. Ahn, 53, was arrested and taken to prison. He has a week to file an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Ahn had been seen as a potential successor to President Moon Jae-in, whose single term ends in 2022. He ran unsuccessfully against Mr. Moon for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2017.
His downfall began last March when Ms. Kim, his former secretary, said on television that he had repeatedly forced her to have sex with him.
