Deputy Judge Lim Seong-geun was acquitted in the first trial and an appeal trial is currently underway. The courts have been acquitting Judge Im, as well as other judges who were involved in the Judicial Nongdan. Such a ruling came out today (29th).
This is reporter Oh Hyo-jung.
[기자]
Former Seoul Central District Court Criminal Chief Judge Im Seong-geun was charged with intervening in a trial involving the Sewol ferry disaster.
Reporter Tatsuya Kato of the Sankei Shimbun was charged with defamation after writing an article about the actions of former President Park Geun-hye.
It was investigated that Judge Lim asked for an interim judgment in court that the driver was’false’ or requested that the sentence be corrected after receiving a report in advance.
In February of last year, the first trial court concluded that Judge Lim had committed a’unconstitutional act’ that violated the independence of the judge.
But there was no punishment.
He said he did not fall under the criminal law for abuse of authority.
The reason was that it was difficult to ask a’crime of abusing the authority’ even if they were involved, because the Chief Criminal Chief Judge did not have the authority to engage in other judges’ trials.
Other judges who were involved in the Judicial Nongdan were sentenced to innocence.
Deputy Judges Shin Gwang-ryul, Jo Eui-yeon, and Sung Chang-ho, who were prosecuted for reporting the investigation information of’Jung Unho Gate’ to the court administration, were also acquitted as in the first trial at the appeal trial today.
The court drew a line saying that the entire court should reflect on this report, but it was separate from criminal penalties.
It was a report according to the usual procedure, and he said that the information did not leak outside of the administration, and that it was not a’public service secret leak’.
As a result, six judges of Judicial Nongshim were convicted in the first or second trial.
The trial of 4 officers, including former Supreme Court Chief Yang Seung-tae and former Deputy Chief Justice of the Court Administration Department, Lim Jong-heon, is ongoing.
Four members, including former Chief of the Court Administration’s Keynote Officer Min-geol Lee and Gyu-jin Lee, a former standing member of the Supreme Court Suspension Committee, are also being tried for the first trial.
(Video Design: Hwang Soo-bi / Video Graphics: Kim Ji-hye)