Repeat drug offense, but only 20,000 won in forfeiture: Hwang Ha-na, Park Yoo-chun's ex-fiancée, released in tears [Full]

[Sportschosun reporter Baek Ji-eun] Hwang Ha-na, Park Yoo-chun's former fiancée and the granddaughter of Namyang Dairy Products' founder, has been released.

On the 9th, Judge Park Jun-seop of the Anyang Branch of Suwon District Court sentenced Hwang Ha-na, who had been detained and indicted on charges including violating the Narcotics Control Act, to a fine of 40 million won and a forfeiture of 20,000 won.

The court acquitted Hwang of the drug-use charges, saying, "Although Hwang Ha-na committed the same type of offense again not long after serving a prison term for a similar crime, the court considered that she had used the drugs at a friend's request and that the amount of methamphetamine used was relatively small. Based on the evidence submitted by prosecutors alone, it is difficult to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Hwang directly used drugs or caused others to do so. The statements of the acquaintances who were at the scene conflict with one another and do not match Hwang's own account. There is also a lack of clear objective evidence from the drug test results to prove the charges."

However, on the charge of fleeing overseas, the court said, "Her departure abroad after the investigation began appears to have been an attempt to escape social attention and pressure rather than to evade the investigation," and imposed a fine of 40 million won.

Hwang Ha-na shed tears and was released immediately afterward.

In July 2023, Hwang Ha-na was accused of encouraging two acquaintances to use methamphetamine and injecting them with the drug herself at an apartment in Gangnam, Seoul. She was also accused of fleeing to Thailand when police began a search of one of the two accomplices, then illegally entering the Kingdom of Cambodia and staying there even though she knew her passport had been invalidated and an Interpol Red Notice had been issued.

At the end of last year, Hwang Ha-na said she wanted to take responsibility for the child she gave birth to in Cambodia and expressed her intention to turn herself in. Police then traveled to Cambodia and arrested her aboard a Korean Air flight at Phnom Penh International Airport. During her return to Korea, she also drew attention for wearing a Rick Owens padded jacket worth more than 4 million won.

In September 2015, Hwang Ha-na was investigated by police on suspicion of handing A 0.5 grams of methamphetamine and using it together with him at a location in Gangnam. However, police sent her case to prosecutors in 2017 with a recommendation not to indict, citing a lack of evidence, and she was later cleared of suspicion.

In 2019, she was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, along with probation, 40 hours of a drug treatment program, and forfeiture of 2,205,600 won for using methamphetamine with Park Yoo-chun. At the time, the court suspended the sentence, saying she had no significant criminal record other than two unrelated prior offenses.

However, Hwang Ha-na was again booked on drug-use charges in 2020, even while still under the suspended sentence period. She denied all charges, claiming that her boyfriend, Oh, had secretly injected her with drugs while she was asleep. In 2021, the trial court sentenced her to two years in prison, but the appeals court reduced the sentence to one year and eight months.

Baek Ji-eun, silk781220@sportschosun.com