Supreme Court Confirms Suspended Sentence for Former Prosecutor in 'Complaint Loss and Forgery' Case

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The suspended sentence for imprisonment was confirmed for a former prosecutor who was indicted on charges of losing a complaint filed by a complainant and forging it as a complaint for another case to cover up the mistake.

The Supreme Court’s 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Min Yoo-sook) announced on the 22nd that it upheld the lower court’s ruling to suspend a 6-month prison sentence for former prosecutor A (38), who was indicted on charges including forgery of official documents.

The court stated, "There is no error in the lower court’s judgment that it did not exceed the limits of free evaluation of evidence, nor did it misunderstand the legal principles regarding the establishment of the crime of forgery of official documents and use of forged official documents, intent, burden of proof, and the principle of evidence-based trial."

Former prosecutor A lost a complaint filed by a complainant while working at the Busan District Prosecutors’ Office in December 2015. To cover up this mistake, he allegedly instructed a clerk to copy a complaint previously submitted by the complainant for another case, create a new cover page, and arbitrarily stamp a superior’s seal, thereby forging the document, and was brought to trial on these charges.

During the trial, A claimed, "I merely restored the internal prosecution documents according to the original procedure."

Earlier, the first and second trial courts pointed out, "As a prosecutor who upholds the law, attempting to conceal one’s own mistake cannot be considered a minor offense," and recognized A’s guilt. However, considering the high likelihood that the lost complaint would have been dismissed and that A resigned due to this incident, the courts suspended the 6-month prison sentence. The Supreme Court issued the same judgment, confirming the ruling as is.

This case drew attention when Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lim Eun-jung of the Ulsan District Prosecutors’ Office filed a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in April last year against current and former high-ranking prosecution officials on charges of dereliction of duty.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lim claimed that the high-ranking prosecution officials covered up the forgery of a complaint filed by a civil petitioner during the case handling process of a prosecutor belonging to the Busan District Prosecutors’ Office, and resolved the matter by accepting resignations without any disciplinary action.

Following Lim’s complaint, the police applied several times for a search warrant on the Busan District Prosecutors’ Office, but the prosecution dismissed all requests, stating, "The alleged crime (dereliction of duty) is difficult to recognize from a legal standpoint."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.