Kim Kyung-soo Appeal Trial Resumes Today... Deliberation on Collusion with Deuruking

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The appellate trial of Kim Kyung-soo, Governor of Gyeongnam Province, will resume on the 24th. This is the first hearing since the composition of the trial panel changed. Attention is focused on whether a swift consensus will be reached, unlike the previous panel.

The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 2 (Chief Judge Ham Sang-hoon) will hold a continuation of the appellate trial of Governor Kim, who was indicted on charges including computer-related obstruction of business, in the afternoon. The hearing comes after a postponement due to most courts nationwide entering a temporary recess amid the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Originally, the verdict for this case was scheduled for December 24 last year. However, then presiding judge Cha Moon-ho postponed the verdict to January 21 of this year and, just one day before the verdict, suddenly decided to resume the trial. Legal circles analyzed that the reason for the two postponements of Governor Kim’s verdict was due to differing opinions between the presiding judge and the lead judge regarding the key issues of the case.

However, Judge Cha, when deciding to resume the trial, made a provisional judgment that Governor Kim had witnessed a demonstration of the comment manipulation program 'King Crab' at the office of Druking. Whether Governor Kim attended the King Crab demonstration is considered a core issue in this case. If attendance is confirmed, the most critical defense argument of Governor Kim’s side would collapse. The previous first trial court also judged that Governor Kim had seen the King Crab demonstration and sentenced him to prison.

At that time, Judge Cha stated that along with this provisional judgment, the subsequent hearing would examine whether Governor Kim could be regarded as a co-principal offender with Druking. To this end, he requested both the special prosecution and Governor Kim’s side to submit materials on eight issues, including why Governor Kim did not raise any objections after sending a list of articles and receiving a reply from Druking saying "I will deliver it."

However, after the decision to resume the trial, regular court personnel changes and reorganization of case assignments took place, and the composition of Governor Kim’s trial panel changed. Only Chief Judge Kim Min-ki remained as the lead judge, while Chief Judges Ham Sang-hoon and Ha Tae-han newly joined Criminal Division 2. Typically, when a new panel is formed, a considerable amount of time is needed to review records and understand the issues. However, since the previous panel had already reached a provisional conclusion on the key issues, the scope for the new panel’s judgment is not broad.

Accordingly, if there is no disagreement among the judges on the panel, it is expected that a swift conclusion can be reached. A lawyer in Seocho-dong said, "The defense may provide additional explanations regarding attendance at the King Crab demonstration, but proving it will not be easy," and predicted, "It seems the major hurdle has been overcome."

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