According to the police investigation, Lee Hyun Joo's younger brother did not intend to defame or slander in writing a post revealing the truth regarding the issue of APRIL's bullying.
It was previously reported that Hyunjoo's younger brother was found not guilty of defamation. The police rejected the lawsuit filed by DSP Media on charges of defamation and slander. APRIL's agency immediately filed an appeal and was recently rejected once again.
Hyun Joo's legal representative revealed, "On June 14, the police have made the decision not to appeal the content of the posts of former APRIL member Hyun Joo's brother that were written online on February 28 and March 3 because they were not recognized as defamation."
According to an article by TenAsia, the police have revealed the reasons for rejecting the appeal. The contents of the post written by Hyunjoo's brother detailed the following events.
Hyunjoo was allegedly ostracized by APRIL members. The members had laughed behind Hyunjoo's mother without greeting her when she came to the agency, and someone had placed rotten kimbap on Hyunjoo's seat in the car. At that time the members and managers got angry and cursed Hyunjoo because of the smell.
Another allegation is that someone put cheonggukjang into the glass that Hyunjoo's grandmother bought. The APRIL members had put on Hyunjoo's shoes and threw them at him, telling him to pick them up.
According to the investigation carried out by the police, Lee Hyun Joo's younger brother did not intend to defame or slander in writing the post and only wanted to straighten out after seeing the article that Hyun Joo chose to leave the group.
The police also judged that the content cannot be considered as spreading false information such as the content including the sneakers and tumbler incident, how Hyunjoo had a hard time due to APRIL's bullying and the details of her daily life, are not far from the truth.
Through TenAsia's report, it was accidentally revealed that the plaintiffs (APRIL) who had filed the lawsuit had lived with Hyunjoo as part of the group.
Previously, Hyunjoo's sister shared an online post about the alleged team bullying that occurred. The post was immediately denied by DSP Media and announced that it would take legal action against Hyunjoo's sister who is currently a minor. However, their lawsuit was rejected by the police. (wk/chus)
