Actor Yoo Ah In, who was recently convicted of drug offenses, made his first-public appearance a mere two months after a suspended prison sentence.
On Sept. 3, social media was filled with pictures of Oscar-winning film director Bong Joon Ho and actor Yoo Ah In by DJ Peggy Gou.
The photos have Bong holding Gou's arms with both of his hands as Yoo smiles broadly in the background. The pictures were later deleted.
Yoo's appearance follows a prolonged trial that was focused on his use of drugs. As per prosecutors, he was alleged of daily use of medical anesthetics, such as propofol, midazolam, ketamine and remimazolam.
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They said "between September 2020 and March 2022, Yoo received these materials 181 times in the pretext of sedation for aesthetic surgery at Seoul hospitals."
The actor was further implicated in other crimes. Officers described, 'Between May 2021 and August 2023, he was given more than 1,100 sleeping tablets on 44 occasions under a different person's prescription.'
Yoo was also charged with smoking marijuana in the US in January 2024 with friends, and prosecutors said he invited people to do so.
In September of 2023, Yoo was sentenced to a year in prison by a lower court and was immediately held. Yet, in February of 2024, an appeals court downgraded the sentence to a two-year suspension and a year in prison.
The court considered Yoo's private ordeal. Judges said the lighter sentence was due to 'his lifelong struggle with sleep disorders and depression and his remorse over the past five months of detention.'
In July, the Supreme Court of South Korea affirmed the appeal's decision, making his suspended sentence final.
While Yoo Ah In has mostly shunned face-time from the spotlight ever since his arrest, his appearance at a party with Bong Joon Ho and Peggy Gou again spurred online speculation on his career, scandals and return to entertainment.
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