Actor Yoo Ah-in (real name Eom Hong-sik) will receive the Supreme Court's ruling on charges of habitual drug use on July 3. This comes about 2 years and 9 months after being indicted in October 2023. Previously, Yoo was sentenced to 1 year in prison at the first trial and was imprisoned, but was released after the second trial reduced the sentence to 1 year in prison with a 2-year probation.

Actor Yoo Ah-in. / Courtesy of News1

The Supreme Court's 1st Division (Chief Justice Ma Yong-joo) is scheduled to announce its conclusion on the case at 10:10 a.m. on July 3. The case was filed with the Supreme Court on March 12. The Supreme Court assigned the case to one of its divisions on April 17 and has been conducting legal review for nearly two months.

Yoo is charged with using propofol 181 times from September 2020 to March 2022 and illegally obtaining sleeping pills in another person's name 44 times from May 2021 to August 2022. In addition, he is also under investigation for smoking marijuana in the U.S. in January 2022 and teaching an acquaintance to smoke it. When police began investigating drug use, he allegedly instructed evidence destruction and pressured a YouTuber who testified about his marijuana use to retract their statement.

The first trial, held on September 3 last year, sentenced Yoo to 1 year in prison and a fine of 2 million won, leading to his detention. The court recognized Yoo's marijuana use and habitual use of medical narcotics as guilty but ruled him not guilty on the charges of teaching marijuana use and instructing evidence destruction. Both Yoo and the prosecution appealed the first trial verdict.

The second trial had the same determination of guilt as the first; however, on February 18, the sentence was reduced to 1 year in prison with a 2-year probation and a fine of 2 million won. This accepted Yoo's claim that "the sentence is too harsh." Consequently, Yoo was released after 5 months of being detained at the Seoul Detention Center.

As the prosecution appealed the second trial ruling, Yoo is receiving the Supreme Court's judgment.