SOUTH Korea’s Supreme Court today handed a suspended prison sentence to a former lawmaker who was found guilty of embezzling funds while leading a group supporting Korean survivors of Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement system.

Yoon Meehyang, who was also convicted of fraudulently receiving government subsidies and unlawfully collecting donations, didn’t attend the verdict, which confirmed a lower court’s sentence of a year and six months in prison, suspended for three years.

In a statement on Facebook, Ms Yoon described her conviction as “unjust,” saying she and her colleagues handled the group’s funds properly and “had not pursued private interests.”