The Supreme Court has upheld prison sentences issued by a lower court for three former chiefs of the National Intelligence Service(NIS) who were accused of providing billions of won from the spy agency’s special activities budget to former President Park Geun-hye.

The top court sentenced Nam Jae-joon to one-and-a-half years in prison, Lee Byung-kee to three years and Lee Byung-ho to three-and-a-half years. 

The three former chiefs were indicted in December 2017. Nam was accused of handing 600 million won to Park while Lee Byung-kee was accused of providing 800 million and Lee Byung-ho two-point-one billion won while heading the nation’s spy agency. 

Earlier on January 14th, the Seoul High Court handed down sentences for the three former chiefs after the Supreme Court quashed an original ruling and sent back the defendants' cases to the high court in November 2019.