Cult leader Jeong Myeong-seok found to have enjoyed preferential treatment during sentences
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Jeong Myeong-seok, leader of the controversial religious cult Christian Gospel Mission, has been found to have enjoyed preferential treatment by spending a substantial portion of his lengthy prison terms in single-occupancy cells.
It was also confirmed that during his first of two prison terms, he was classified under guidelines for socially prominent figures despite being a sex offender.
Jeong was convicted of rape in 2008 and spent the 10 years of his incarceration in a single cell, according to Yonhap News Agency. At the time, correctional authorities cited a guard-duty guideline stating that people who were classified as socially prominent figures, who required special protection, could be given priority for placement in a single cell.
That guideline was abolished in 2019, the year after Jeong’s release, but he had already completed his sentence in a cell 1.5 times larger than those used by ordinary inmates.
After being convicted of rape again following his release, Jeong was sent back to prison in 2022 and again spent a significant period in solitary confinement. Apart from the first week of quarantine after his admission, he stayed in a single cell for about five months, which correctional authorities said was due to accommodation conditions.
Jeong was moved to a shared cell in March 2023 after the controversy over preferential treatment intensified following the release of the Netflix documentary series “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal” (2023). But in July last year, he was moved again to a two-person medical cell at the request of medical staff and was in effect living alone there, according to the findings.
“The very idea that a serial sex offender was treated as a prominent figure whose reputation had to be protected is absurd,” said Kim Do-hyung, a professor at Dankook University and an activist who has campaigned against the cult. “Given that Jeong’s health does not appear serious enough to justify such a lengthy stay in a medical cell, a rigorous investigation is needed into the preferential treatment he received at Daejeon Prison.”
Meanwhile, correctional authorities reportedly moved Jeong out of the medical cell and housed him with another inmate only after reporting on the case began on March 20.
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