Kim Se-ui, the operator of the YouTube channel "Garosero Research Institute", has been formally indicted while in custody. He is accused of spreading false information, including claims that the late actress Kim Saeron had been in a relationship with actor Kim Soohyun since she was a minor.
According to News1 on June 23, the Women's and Children's Crime Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office indicted YouTuber Kim Se-ui on charges including violations of the Information and Communications Network Act (defamation), violations of the S****l Violence Punishment Act (distribution of illegally recorded images, etc.), and violations of the Anti-Stalking Act.
Prosecutors worked closely with police from the stage of applying for an arrest warrant to ensure that Kim was transferred to the prosecution while under arrest. Through additional investigations, including interviews with victims and forensic analysis of audio files by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Scientific Investigation Division, they determined that Kim had arbitrarily edited or distorted materials, or at minimum recklessly used false materials without basic fact-checking, thereby spreading false information about the victim's private life.
Kim is accused of falsely claiming, through YouTube livestreams and press conferences between March and May of last year, that Kim Saeron had dated the adult actor Kim Soohyun for about six years starting when she was 15 years old, and that the direct cause of her death was pressure from Kim Soohyun to repay debts.
In addition, Kim is accused of damaging Kim Soohyun's reputation by fabricating false claims using generative AI to manipulate Kim Saeron's voice.
On May 26, the court conducted a pre-arrest hearing (warrant review) for Kim and subsequently issued an arrest warrant, citing concerns that he might destroy evidence or flee.
In the arrest warrant application, police stated: "The suspect was fully aware that Kim Soohyun had not been in a relationship with the deceased while she was a minor and that Kim Soohyun was not responsible for her d**th, yet he distributed false information with the intent to defame."
Police also wrote: "At a press conference on May 7 of last year, he played an AI-manipulated voice recording of the deceased and falsely claimed that she had dated the complainant since middle school and first had sexual relations with him during the winter vacation of her second year of middle school."
Kim later requested a judicial review of his detention, but the court dismissed the request, stating that there were no grounds to support it.
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