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Singer Amy fined 5 million won for abusing insomnia drug

September 29, 2014
Amy talks to a reporter on her way to the courtroom. (Yonhap)

Amy talks to a reporter on her way to the courtroom. (Yonhap)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — A female K-pop singer was sentenced to a fine for taking a common prescription drug that induces sleep.

The Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday sentenced Lee Yoon-ji, better known by her stage name, Amy, to a fine of 5 million won (US$4,733) for taking zolpidem without a prescription.

Lee was indicted last year on charges of taking 15 out of 85 pills of zolpidem that she secretly received from a woman whom she met at a probation office in western Seoul.

She had regularly taken lectures against drug addiction there after receiving a suspended jail sentence for abusing the psychotropic drug propofol in November 2012.

“The crime is not minor seen from the fact that the accused repeatedly committed the same type of crime, especially during a stay of execution for her previous crime,” Judge Jeong Eun-yeong of the court said in a verdict. ”But I took into consideration the facts that she repented the crime she committed while suffering from an acute insomnia and there were no financial transactions.”