Lawmaker loses seat in SK house over wiretaps

A South Korean lawmaker known for criticism of Samsung has lost his seat in parliament after the Supreme Court ruled he violated communications laws by publishing incriminating wiretaps of conversations between Samsung officials on the Internet.

South Korea's top court upheld a lower court's conviction of lawmaker Roh Hoe-chan and a suspended prison sentence. He published transcripts of conversations between an aide to Samsung Electronics Co chairman Lee Kun-hee and Lee's brother-in-law that were taped by the national intelligence agency. The conviction bars Roh from being a lawmaker.

A press release issued by Roh in 2005 included a transcript of the conversations, which revealed the names of prosecutors who were showered with cash by Samsung. He also posted the transcript to his website.

Roh, who was a lawmaker for the opposition Progressive Justice Party, has been a vocal critic of Samsung, South Korea's most powerful conglomerate, which dominates the country's economy. In testimony to the National Assembly in 2005, he used the wiretapped conversations to call for a probe into Samsung's ties with prosecutors. The probe led to the resignation of a vice justice minister but prosecutors only indicated Roh and a journalist for releasing the wiretaps.

Roh criticized the court's ruling as "anachronistic."

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