A Seoul court Saturday allowed prosecutors to detain an Internet pundit whose prophetic comments about the South Korean economy have won him a wave of supporters disenchanted with the government, Yonhap News reported.
Prosecutors Friday apprehended the man, 30, identified only as Park, whom they believe is the author of over 100 online postings critical of the government's handling of the economy, widely known by his Internet alias, "Minerva." Park was arrested on charges of spreading false rumors and later admitted to authoring the postings.
Park's action had triggered debates on freedom of speech in cyber space and whether the person arrested was actually the anonymous online doomsayer on the Korean economy.
Minerva made his name after predicting the fall of Lehman Brothers and the plunge of the won against the dollar. Even Finance Minister Kang Man-soo said he would like to have a ``face-to-face, down-to-earth talk'' with him.
Moves to arrest Minerva had drawn keen interest from both domestic and international media after it was initially reported Park was being questioned.
The Financial Times reported that an adviser to President Lee Myung-bak admitted that the government was trying to determine how to counter the influence of Internet chat-rooms in Korean society last month.
Reuters quoted a financial broker as saying Minerva had become influential enough to deter some investors from buying Korean shares while the government has turned increasingly sensitive to negative reports on the economy, one of the hardest hit in Asia by the global financial crisis.