News has come out that Korean blogger Minerva has been found not guilty:

Online commentator Park Dae-sung, better known as “Minerva,” was found not guilty of spreading false financial information with intent to hurt the public interest, Monday.

The Seoul Central District Court set free the 31-year-old, about 100 days following his arrest on charges of violating the Telecommunications Law. “Park wrote the articles without the knowledge that his postings contained false information. Even if he was aware of it, he didn’t intend to harm the public interest,” the court said in its ruling.

Lawyer Park Chan-jong, who is representing Park, told The Korea Times, “This ruling means the judiciary supports freedom of expression on the Internet, and that cannot be interrupted by any means.” The prosecution appealed the verdict.

Walking out of Seoul Detention Center in Gyeonggi Province at around 5 p.m., Park told reporters, “I’m fine. I will never return (to prison).”

“I’m sorry for causing any trouble to society and wish this case to contribute to improving the nation’s democracy as well as human rights,” he said. “I will continue to write articles on various topics.”

Minerva made his name online after predicting the fall of Lehman Brothers and the plunge of the won against the U.S. dollar, both of which took place between late last year and early 2009.

Park was arrested and indicted in January on charges of spreading false financial rumors through articles he posted on July 30 and Dec. 29 last year on a bulleting board of Daum, the country’s second largest portal.  [Korea Times]

The Marmot has a good write up on this that is worth checking out.