‘Thousands infected’ Shincheonji, punishment 0
[앵커]
There is a controversy that a ruling came out that could make it even more dull when the day of quarantine should be sharp. All eight members of the Shincheonji Daegu Church, who were handed over to trial for interfering with quarantine because they did not deliberately give a list of members, were found innocent. This is the same conclusion this time following General Chairman Lee Man-hee last month. The court decided that securing the list was not an epidemiological investigation and did not interfere with the quarantine.
This is reporter Oh Sun-min.
[기자]
Officials from Shincheonji Daegu Church exit the court without saying anything.
[최모 씨/신천지 대구교회 지파장 : (무죄 판결 나왔는데 어떻게 생각하시는지 한마디만 부탁드릴게요.) …]
Eight members of the church were charged with interfering with the epidemiological investigation by deliberately omitting the list of members.
In February of last year, the group infection of Shincheonji Daegu Church was the largest among single group infections ever.
It was also the beginning of the first pandemic of Corona 19.
The first trial court found all eight people innocent.
The judiciary said, “It is not an epidemiological investigation that requested the submission of a list of members, but a preliminary preparation stage for an epidemiological investigation.”
Therefore, we judged that “submitting the missing list cannot be punished for violating the law.”
He said, “It is difficult to see it as a hindrance to the execution of public affairs just because we did not respond to the request for information provision.”
Regarding the result of the sentence, Daegu City said, “I will watch the prosecution’s appeal,” and “I will make every effort to respond to civil and administrative litigation.
Shincheonji said, “Regardless of the result of the sentence, we will take responsibility for the corona 19 infection.”
Last month, the court sentenced Shincheonji General Chairman Lee Man-hee not guilty to interfering with epidemiological investigations.
In addition to this trial, the city of Daegu has also filed a lawsuit for damages of 100 billion won against Shincheonji.
[앵커]
When the spread of the Shincheonji crisis took place, it was before the law was revised, so there were limits to punishment for obstruction of quarantine. However, the court saw that the prosecution was not guilty of violating the Infectious Disease Prevention Act, which the prosecution indicted for punishment. There are more than 5,000 confirmed cases related to Shincheonji, and so far, no one has been punished.
This is reporter Oh Hyo-jung.
[기자]
On February 18 last year, patient 31, the first confirmed case, came out in Daegu.
I was a member of Shincheonji.
Since then, the infection has increased explosively, mainly among worshipers and contacts of Daegu Church.
Although the quarantine authorities requested a list of all members, Shincheonji Daegu Church made a list minus 133 members who are reluctant to disclose their identity.
Confusion arose in the quarantine, and Lee Man-hee, the general president, finally apologized.
[이만희/신천지 총회장 : 앞으로 모든 노력을 다하겠고 또 우리의 잘못된 것도 저희가 알고 있습니다.]
However, I only apologized, and no one was held liable.
There are two main reasons for the court’s innocence.
Under the current law, epidemiological investigations are intended to track the cause of the corona19 patient’s personal information, but the list of members requested by the quarantine authorities was written regardless of whether it was confirmed or the route of infection, so it was not an epidemiological investigation.
This is the conclusion that it is not a violation of the infectious disease prevention method.
The prosecutors’ prosecution interpreted the epidemiological investigation broadly and prosecuted it, but the court refused to accept that there was room for limiting basic rights.
There were also limitations of the legal provisions.
The quarantine authorities are allowed to request information about groups suspected of being infected, such as members of Shincheonji, but the punishment provisions were not applied to Shincheonji since last September.
Among the cases of group infection over the past year, there were 5214 confirmed cases related to Shincheonji, accounting for 16%.
17% of all confirmed cases related to religious facilities such as Sarang First Church and BTJ Center for the Nations.
Officials of Sarangjeil Church, who were prosecuted for conducting face-to-face worship on the 1st, are also claiming innocence, saying that they cannot be punished based on an administrative order.
(Video Design: Chang-Hwan Lee, Jae-wook Lee)