'Whitelist' Kim Ki-chun, Former Presidential Chief of Staff, Sentenced to 1 Year in Prison

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Kim Ki-chun, former Chief of Staff at the Blue House, who was prosecuted for the Park Geun-hye administration's illegal support of conservative groups, known as the 'white list' case, has been sentenced to one year in prison.

On the 15th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Park Sang-ok) upheld the ruling of the retrial that sentenced former Chief of Staff Kim to one year in prison on charges of abuse of authority and coercion.

Kim and others were prosecuted on charges of pressuring the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) from 2014 to 2016 to provide a total of 6.9 billion won to 33 pro-government conservative groups. After becoming the Presidential Chief of Staff in 2013, he was investigated for repeatedly stating in senior secretaries' meetings that "we must respond with a warlike attitude to eradicate leftist forces" and for meeting with conservative group leaders to receive requests for support.

In the first trial, Kim was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and was detained in court. However, he was acquitted of the abuse of authority charges.

On the other hand, the second trial recognized the abuse of authority charges as guilty but maintained the sentence. The second trial court pointed out that the political affairs secretary's office's demand for financial support from the FKI was made in a coercive manner that suppressed the FKI's autonomy, fulfilling the conditions for abuse of authority and causation.

Subsequently, in February, the Supreme Court overturned the original ruling that sentenced Kim to one year and six months and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court. The Supreme Court upheld the abuse of authority charge as guilty but acquitted him of the coercion charge.

The Seoul High Court, which handled the retrial, sentenced Kim to one year in prison in June. Since the days he was detained on the 'white list' charges exceeded the one-year sentence, Kim was not detained in court.

On the same day, the Supreme Court's final appeal also ruled that the act of demanding financial support from the FKI for certain politically inclined civic groups falls within the general official duties of the Presidential Chief of Staff and the Political Affairs Secretary's Office and constitutes abuse of authority. The Supreme Court found no legal error in the original ruling. The court stated, "After remand, the original ruling rejecting the defendant's appeal regarding the establishment of the crime of abuse of authority is upheld."

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