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The defamation lawsuit filed by the World Mission Society of the Church of God (formerly the Ahnsahnghong Witness Society) against the victim, Ms. Cho, has been largely dismissed. The Church of God victim, Cho, criticized the Church of God, its leader, Jang Gil-ja, 74, and its general president, Kim Joo-cheol, by writing words such as "cult" and "fraudster" in an internet cafe on 141 occasions between November 2013 and December 2016. The Church of God filed a lawsuit for 185 million won in damages, claiming it constituted defamation. The Civil Division 27 of the Incheon District Court (Chief Judge Heo Il-seung) said on Nov. 11, "Mr. Cho's criticism of the Church of God, who was expelled from the Church, can be seen as a religious criticism activity based on his faith perspective, so we dismissed the rest except for some violations of his personal rights.“

The tribunal maintained that freedom of religious criticism is heavily protected by the combined constitutional rights of freedom of religion and freedom of speech and publication, and that religious criticism is of public interest to the general public. "The Church of God produced a tract claiming that the end of the world would come in 1988, three years after Ahnsahnghong's death," the tribunal said, referring to the terms "cult" and "religious fraudster." "In 1999, it conducted a survey on end-of-the-world prophecies and claimed that the end of the world would come in 2012. "The prevailing interpretation is that these statements were made in the course of criticizing the doctrine."

The court also ruled that even if the terms "criminal group," "property extortion," "family breakup," and "divorce promotion" were somewhat exaggerated, they were within the permissible scope of religious criticism, given that there were cases of female members of the Church of God leaving or divorcing due to religious conflicts, and that donations based on time-bound eschatology may have caused domestic discord. In particular, the court said, "In light of the fact that Jang Gil-jah is close to the object of worship in the Church of God, it is difficult to see it as a derogatory expression of sentiment per se." As for "divorcee," the court said, "It is difficult to conclude that the term 'divorcee' used in the process of questioning the doctrine of believing in Jang Gil-jah as a spiritual mother and criticizing the doctrine violated Jang Gil-jah's right to personality by itself.