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Yoon Mee-hyang was indicted in 2020 on several charges of fraud
and embezzlement during her days as head of the group, which
advocates for surviving "comfort women" - a Japanese euphemism
for those forced to work in its wartime brothels during its
1910-45 colonisation of the Korean peninsula.
The Seoul Western District Court said Yoon embezzled at least 17
million won ($13,500) of group funds raised through donations.
"The organisation runs on the money from ordinary people ... but
the defendant failed to meet expectations," the court said in
its verdict, according to the News1 agency.
Yoon was fined 15 million won ($11,900) but the court acquitted
her of other charges including illegally receiving government
subsidies and coaxing a victim in failing health to donate her
fortune to the group.
Yoon, who had apologised for causing controversy but denied the
charges, smiled as she left the court.
"It proved my innocence on most of the unreasonable charges
pressed by the prosecutors," she told reporters, adding she
would appeal against her conviction.
Prosecutors had called for a five-year jail sentence, which
would have forced her to give up her seat in parliament.
Calls to the court and the advocacy group known as Jungdaehyup,
or the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues
of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, went unanswered.
Yoon's case threatened to damage the campaign on behalf of the
surviving victims of the Japanese military.
The legacy of Japan's colonial rule, especially the issues of
sexual exploitation and forced labour, remain highly sensitive
in South Korea and have for decades frayed ties with Japan.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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