Asia11 September, 20263 min read
Seoul Central District Court Acquits Yoon Suk Yeol Over Alleged Aid to Lee Jong-sup Flee
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Seoul Central District Court acquitted Yoon Suk-yeol of harboring a suspect. Verdict found no definite intent to obstruct the Marine's death investigation.
Yoon’s Verdict
A Seoul Central District Court will rule on former President Yoon Suk-yeol, indicted over allegations he helped former Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup flee the country in connection with alleged interference in the investigation into the death of a Marine, with sentencing scheduled at 2 p.m. for Yoon by the 22nd criminal division presided over by Judge Cho Hyung-woo. The Seoul Economic Daily says the court will also deliver verdicts for co-defendants including Cho Tae-yong, Park Sung-jae, Chang Ho-jin, Lee Si-won, and Shim Woo-jung, and it reports that the special counsel team led by Lee Myung-hyun sought a five-year prison term for Yoon in July. Prosecutors argued that harboring a suspect was not an individual act but a crime carried out with the machinery of the state, and they sought three years each for Cho and Park and two years each for Chang, Lee and Shim.
The same article says Yoon appointed Lee ambassador to Australia on March 4, 2024, after Lee was under a travel ban as a suspect in an investigation by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials. It adds that three days after the appointment, on March 7, Lee appeared before the office for questioning and the Justice Ministry lifted the travel ban, allowing him to depart for Australia, before Lee took up the post and returned home 11 days later as public opinion turned against him.
Acquittal and Reasoning
Multiple outlets report that Yoon was acquitted of abusing his presidential power to harbor a criminal suspect, with the Seoul Central District Court ruling it cannot be definitively concluded that there was intent to obstruct investigations into a marine's death. chinadailyhk says the court delivered the verdict, and it reports that the team of independent counsel Lee Myeong-hyeon sought a five-year prison term on charges of aiding the criminal suspect's flight and abusing presidential power. Korea JoongAng Daily adds that the court found Yoon not guilty of charges including harboring or facilitating the escape of an offender, abuse of authority and violating the State Public Officials Act, and it quotes the court saying, "There is room to view it as an exercise of his appointment authority as head of state."
The Korea JoongAng Daily also quotes the ruling that, "It cannot be said that the previous ambassador was forced out so that Lee Jong-sup could, colloquially speaking, be 'parachuted into' the post." It further reports that five others indicted alongside Yoon—including Cho Tae-yong, Park Sung-jae, Shim Woo-jung, Chang Ho-jin, and Lee Si-won—were also acquitted of all charges.
Other Proceedings
While the Yoon case turns on the ambassadorial appointment and alleged intent to obstruct a Marine investigation, the Seoul Economic Daily says separately that an appeals court will rule on military prosecutors indicted over allegedly false statements in an arrest warrant request for Brig. Gen. Park Jung-hun, the former head of the Marine Corps investigation unit that examined the Marine's death.
It reports that the seventh criminal division of the Seoul High Court, presided over by Judge Ku Hoe-keun, will deliver the verdict at 1:40 p.m. for Maj. Yeom Bo-hyun of the Army and Lt. Col. Kim Min-jung of the Air Force, both facing charges including preparing false official documents.
The same article says Yeom and Kim were indicted on charges of including false information in the arrest warrant request for Park, and it adds they are accused of causing Park to undergo a pre-detention questioning hearing and to be held for about seven hours by filing a warrant request containing false content.
It also states that at the final hearing, the special counsel sought one year in prison and two years of suspension of qualifications for Yeom, and two years in prison and three years of suspension of qualifications for Kim.
Finally, the Seoul Economic Daily reports that in the first trial in June, both prosecutors were acquitted of the charge of preparing false official documents, but Yeom was fined 10 million won for failing to appear as a witness at a parliamentary audit.