Ahn Ye Song, who was a member of the K-pop girl group INSTAR and is now a DJ called Yesong, has been sentenced to 8 years in prison. This comes after she drove her Mercedes-Benz SUV while drunk and caused the death of a delivery worker in his 50s. Reports from South Korean news today confirm her punishment after the Supreme Court made its decision on December 10.
Initially, Yesong was sentenced to 10 years because she left the scene without helping the victim. However, the sentence was reduced to 8 years after she showed regret and settled with the victim’s family. The prosecutors had suggested a longer sentence of 15 years because they felt she did not show much remorse, especially when her lawyers tried to blame the victim for what happened.
Yesong’s lawyer stated that she understood the seriousness of what she did. She admitted to drinking heavily at a work event before driving and has no memory of the accident. Yesong recognized that she needs help for her drinking problem. Although she accepted her guilt, her team claimed that the victim should also share some blame, suggesting that the accident might not have happened if the victim had chosen a different road.
In her follow-up comments, Yesong took back her earlier claims. She explained that she was under financial stress due to not getting enough work, which led her to drink at an important event. She said, “I am very sorry for the pain I caused to the victim, and I’m thinking seriously about my actions.”
The accident occurred in February when Yesong was driving with a very high blood alcohol level of 0.221%, which is way over the legal limit. She hit a motorcyclist in Gangnam, Seoul, after trying to escape from an earlier crash.
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