The former judge impeached the judge… Reasons for attracting attention in the first line

February 4, 2021, was recorded as the date of approval for the first impeachment of a judge in the history of the Republic of Korea. The votes, with 179 votes pouring out, were unsigned, but two first-choice lawmakers Lee Soo-jin and Lee Tan-hee of the Democratic Party, who were called “law suit politicians,” received the spotlight. How did they become icons of impeachment of judges?

The stepping stone for the two men to enter the National Assembly was prepared on February 9, 2017, during the regular greeting of the judge (February greeting).


Judge Lee Tan-hee, a member of the Suwon District Law Anyang Branch, was appointed as the Planning 1 Review Officer in the Planning and Coordination Office, which is the core department of the Court Administration Department, and on February 20, a commotion occurred. In the same person, Judge Lee Soo-jin was pushed back to the Daejeon District Court after two years from the position of a judge in the Supreme Court, where three years of service were common. The deliberation officers in the keynote office and the judges are often working, but they are recognized as a shortcut to promotion, so judges envy.

In the atmosphere of the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, the conflict between the International Human Rights Law Research Society (Research Group) and the Court Administration Office, a meeting of progressive judges in the court that tried to attack the Yang Seung-tae regime, coincided with the heightened academic conference issue. It was a time when the court administration was contemplating the response when the’Human Rights and Judicial System Small Group’ (Insamo), a core group within the research group, decided to hold the conference on March 25, which took the issue of the’Imperial Supreme Court President’ system.

As the Kyunghyang Shinmun of March 6 raised suspicion over the return of Judge Lee Tan-hee’s original title under the title 『’Stop Judges’ Judicial Reform Movement’, the Supreme Law, the Judge Rejecting the Order”Personnel Action’』, the power struggle of judges rapidly rises above the surface. did.

In January of last year, the Democratic Party recruited them and introduced former Judge Lee Tan-hee as a “fighter” who “organized a preparatory meeting for the National Judge Delegation” and former Judge Lee Soo-jin as “a victim and a revelator of the Judicial Nongdan case. However, in the trial process against former Supreme Court Chief Yang Seung-tae and former Deputy Chief Justice of the Court Administration Department, Lim Jong-heon, there were several statements that made such packaging awkward.

Judge Lee Tan-hee got the image of’resistance’ because of the resignation letter he submitted after one week of selection (February 16, 2017). Cases that would affect the judge’s thoughts focused on the 3-4 days before the resignation was submitted.

On February 13, the Court Administration issued a notice stating, “Please leave only one study group that has been duplicated and withdraw from it,” in order to press the Human Rights Law Research Group, which had 480 members. The next day, Judge Lee Gyu-jin, a standing committee member, said, “Don’t be surprised to see a file with a password, which the judges investigated behind the judges on the keynote room.” On the 15th, the next day, “Human Rights Law Research Group and the response logic to “Please deliver it to Insamo.” On this day, a judge who accompanied Judge Lee on business said in the courtroom, “This judge repeated the words’I don’t know why I came to the court administration’ in the car.”

On December 14, last year, Congressman Lee Tan-hee came out as a witness to the trial against former deputy chief Lim, and said, “I thought that the legal nature of (measures for resolving duplicate membership) was a crime of obstructing the exercise of the right to abuse of authority. “I didn’t do it because I was joining in illegal actions to tell me to falsely inform the legitimacy.”

However, in the course of the controversy about returning to the country, which has spread to suspicion of abuse of the judicial administration, Judge Lee Tan-hee has never communicated such an idea through a press conference, interview, or writing. After the news of Kyunghyang Shinmun, Judge Lee’s actions were close to silence. When former Judge Lee Tan-hee joined the Democratic Party in January of last year, Incheon District Court Judge Lee Yeon-jin posted a comment on the court’s internal communication network.

“The National Judge Delegation Meeting was first proposed through the bulletin board on April 24, 2017 by judges who were elected as representatives at the national judges’ meetings held in March 2017 or as candidates for investigation committees, and the first meeting was held on June 19 of the same year. I also attended. Lee Tan-hee, who had prepared this meeting while serving as a judge, was a subject of investigation by the fact-finding committee at the time and took a leave of work in May of that year.”

In fact, the name’Lee Tan-hee’ was gradually forgotten as liberal judges began to take over the judicial power in earnest, starting with the holding of the National Judges’ Delegation in June, with Judge Hyung-Yeon Kim (former Legal Affairs Officer) of the Human Rights Law Research Association in May 2017. lost.

It is because of the’February Greetings’ that Rep. Lee Su-jin has claimed to be “Judge of Water Yagi” and “Blacklist Judge” of the days of Supreme Court Chief Yang Seung-tae. It is argued that the trip to Daejeon in two years was a retaliation for personnel received because he was a founding member of Insamo or opposition to the Appellate Court.

However, before’February Greetings’, Judge Lee Soo-jin was close to persuading Judge Lee Tan-hee with the logic and position of the head of the administration. Judge Lee Tan-hee recorded the words Judge Lee Soo-jin called in mid-January before’February Greetings’ in the statement submitted to the Fact-Investigation Committee.

“A high-level administration person called me. The Supreme Court is closely watching the conference. I don’t want you to have an academic conference” “Actually, the person who called me was (Supreme Court’s) Lee Gyu-jin, head of Yang Hyeong. This is a person who is solely at the top of the Supreme Court, so if he enforces the event, he can just resign Chairman Lee Jin-man (Human Rights Law). “I played a role in the middle between President Lee Gyu-jin and the Human Rights Law Research Group” and so on.

The words spoken by the two witnesses in the same court last December were close to the truth game. Rep. Lee Soo-jin said, “Committee Gyu-jin Lee called me and said,’We should block the conference,’ and he just delivered it in the manner of’the court administration is outraged.’ ) Because he came in later, he may have misunderstood my nuances.” However, Rep. Lee Tan-hee said, “I wrote what I heard right after the phone call (with Rep. Lee Soo-jin),” and said, “I tried not to change any expressions written by the other party.”

It was also revealed that the name’Lee Su-jin’ did not appear in the document of’Judge of Water Yagi’ prepared by the court administration at the time.

In the courts, statements against Rep. Lee Soo-jin’s arguments about’February greetings’ continued.

“At the time, there were many aspects of Lee Soo-jin that he was short of, so he moved one year earlier than other research centers.” (Last year’s June 3rd, Former Chief Justice Yang, Former Personnel Deliberator Kim Yeon-hak)

“As a fact-trial judge, I’m not sure, but as a Supreme Court researcher, I think I’m a little less capable.” (Last year’s December 14th, trial by former deputy chief Lim, former judge Lee Won)

These were questions and answers based on the data that there were about 20 researchers with different reports from the end of February to the end of December 2016, but only six of Lee Su-jin’s researchers.

Irrespective of the two, the theory of impeachment of the judges ignited briefly at the Democratic Party in November 2018 and then extinguished. House representative Hong Young-pyo said, “I will immediately begin the discussion on the impeachment proceedings for judges,” but the equation was complicated in the 20s National Assembly, where the seats were less than half. Supreme Commissioner Park Joo-min said, “If you combine the Democratic Party, the Democratic Peace Party, the Justice Party, and then the reforming independent lawmakers, it will be a majority”, but the discussion did not exceed the concerns of the party.

Even when Congressman Lee Tan-hee proposed “impeachment of judges” in January of last year as the cause of his initiation to politics, the response was not great. Soon after, the general election followed, and Lee left the National Assembly immediately after the opening of the 21st National Assembly (June 6) complaining of panic disorder.

On June 4th, the path was mixed with Rep. Lee Soo-jin, who cried out for “impeachment.” When a statement stating that the’February greetings’ was due to his work ability came out in court the previous day, Rep. Lee Su-jin responded, saying, “I feel severely insulted,” and “I will promptly pursue the impeachment of the judges of the Judicial Nongdan. At that time, a Democratic Party member Da-sun said, “I asked Rep. Lee Su-jin to be careful, but it was a reaction that’I was a person who entered (to the National Assembly) to do this (impeachment).’

It was only about a month ago that Congressman Lee Tan-hee took the call again. On December 23rd, Congressman Lee held a press conference calling for the impeachment of the 4.16 Family Council and Judges Im Seong-geun and Lee Dong-geun on December 30, and the impeachment of former court administration chief Lee Min-geol and Judge Da-ju Jung with the (former) KTX train crew branch on December 30. One of the Democratic Party’s first lawmakers said, “Lee seemed to be putting impeachment on the impeachment itself rather than on who the target was.”

The debate took off at the Congressional Assembly on the 27th and 28th of last month. The Open Democratic Party representative Choi Kang-wook, who was convicted of writing a false internship certificate to the son of former Justice Minister Cho Kook, incited “The time for impeachment of judges has come.” Until then, there were many lawmakers in the party who did not know what Judge Im Seong-geun did specifically. Re-elected lawmakers in the metropolitan area said, “Recently, the convictions against Gyeongnam Governor Kim Gyeong-soo, former professor at Dongyang University, and CEO Kang-wook Choi, etc. have led to a rise in supporters of the family, and as the next party leader, Song Young-gil and Hong Young-pyo, stepped forward, it became a’an atmosphere of being photographed if opposed. Said.

Reporter Lim Jang-hyuk [email protected]