Kim Seung Youn AP PHOTO

Prosecutors last month sought a two-year prison term for the Hanwha Group chairman in the attack on off-duty karaoke bar workers who engaged in the altercation with his 22-year-old son, a student at Yale University.

In its ruling, the Seoul District Court said that Kim's bodyguards forcibly took the victims to a construction site near the capital, where the tycoon kicked and punched them. Kim also hit one of the workers with a steel pipe and threatened the victims with an electric shock device, the ruling said.

Judge Kim Chul Hwan said Kim's responsibility for the crime was "heavy" as the Hanwha chief mobilized his clout and corporate organization to retaliate against the workers.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 7, 2007
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