People Power Party: "No Jeong-hee is incompetent, unable to make basic legal judgments... Nomination for Central Election Commission Chair should be canceled"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Members of the People Power Party's Legislation and Judiciary Committee demanded on the 8th that Chief Justice Kim Myung-soo cancel the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Noh Jeong-hee as the Chairperson of the National Election Commission, accusing her of incompetence for failing to even grasp basic legal principles.

The entire Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the People Power Party stated in a press release that day, "Chief Justice Kim should bow his head and apologize to the public and withdraw the appointment of Justice Noh, who has left a significant stain on the history of the Supreme Court, as Chairperson of the National Election Commission."

According to them, in January last year, the High Military Court sentenced Army Battalion Commander A, who was charged with assaulting a non-commissioned officer during a harsh winter training exercise within the division's camp, to a fine of 2 million won.

Commander A appealed to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court's 2nd Division, presided over by Justice Noh, overturned and remanded the case back to the High Military Court, ruling that "assault is a quasi-offense requiring the victim's consent," and "since the victim withdrew the intention to prosecute before the first trial verdict, the indictment should have been dismissed."

However, the High Military Court, bound by the Supreme Court's ruling, should have dismissed the indictment but instead re-imposed the 2 million won fine, stating, "Article 60-6 of the Military Criminal Act contains a special provision that excludes the application of the quasi-offense rule when a soldier is assaulted at military bases or facilities, and it is very clear that the Supreme Court overlooked this special provision."

Commander A then filed a further appeal, arguing that the High Military Court's ruling violated the binding effect of the remand decision. This time, the Supreme Court dismissed the further appeal and upheld the original fine of 2 million won. During this process, the Legislation and Judiciary Committee members pointed out that the Supreme Court's appellate review falsely stated that there had been a change in the facts underlying the case, despite there being no factual changes at all.

The committee members criticized, "Justice Noh, who presided over the appeal, revealed incompetence by failing to properly judge even the most basic legal principles," and "Justice Park Jeong-hwa, who presided over the further appeal, distorted the facts to conceal Justice Noh's mistakes and thoroughly covered them up."

They added, "It would be shameful if the Supreme Court justices admitted their fundamental legal errors during the appeal, but the proper attitude of a judge is to acknowledge mistakes and confess the facts. However, the justices ignored this," and "It is problematic that the Supreme Court failed to properly interpret the law, but having concealed the facts, how can they have the audacity to ask the public to trust the judiciary?" they raised their voices.

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