At the first trial of former YG Entertainment CEO Yang Hyun-seok at the Seoul Central District Court on the 5th, Police A, who appeared as a witness, testified to the lawyer at the time of the investigation, “Are you here to defend Han Seo-hee or are you here to prevent us from investigating YG?” The trial was operated as Yang Hyun-suk was indicted on charges of retaliatory threats against Han Seo-hee.
He said, “While Han Seo-hee was arrested and being investigated by the police office, I checked the contents of her cell phone with her consent, and in the process, I found various circumstantial drug transactions.” On this mobile phone, the names of WINNER member Lee Seung-hoon and iKON’s former member Kim Han-bin ( stage name B.I) came out.
In August 2016, A, an incumbent police officer who was in charge of investigating Han Seo-hee at the Gyeonggi Nambu Administration’s Drug Investigation Unit, also stated that he received a call from Han Seo-hee to respond to an interview request from entertainment media Dispatch a few years after the investigation into YG celebrities ended with Han Seo-hee’s statement. There was also testimony that Han Seo-hee reported to Dispatch about YG and recommended A to have an interview with Dispatch.
Since Han Seo-hee was under the third and fourth police investigations, lawyer B (female) has been present, and police A testified that this lawyer prevented Han Seo-hee from speaking and answered for her instead.
A said, “While lawyer B was away for a while to answer the phone or go to the bathroom, I talked to Han Seo-hee and she said, ‘I’m sorry. You know I can’t do it. I can’t do it.”
In A’s witness interrogation that day, there was also testimony that Han Seo-hee was caught trading drugs with YG singers and received a strong warning. “Han Seo-hee said she was called to YG and received a warning that says ‘If you supply drugs to YG singers again, I will kill you without anyone realizing it. I would not let you put your foot on Korea,” A said.
The issue of the trial is whether Han Seo-hee was directly threatened by former CEO Yang Hyun-seok not to cooperate with the B.I-related investigation.
Meanwhile, Han Seo-hee, who reported to the police about B.I. and former CEO Yang in June 2019, was exempted from prosecution for selling and distributing drugs to B.I. and others for being a whistleblower.
However, Han Seo-hee was indicted in July last year after being tested positive for psychotropic drugs such as methamphetamine (philophon) and amphetamine in urine tests, a year after she was exempted from prosecution due to her whistleblower report. It was during her probation period so the prosecution canceled the probation against Han Seo-hee due to recidivism.
