President Moon impersonated to order "Shorten classes due to severe fine dust"... 20s university student fined

A university student who impersonated President Moon Jae-in and instructed the Minister of Education to shorten classes was sentenced to a fine in the appellate court.
[Image source = Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Eun-young] A university student who impersonated President Moon Jae-in and sent an official document to the Minister of Education instructing "to shorten classes due to severe fine dust" was sentenced to a fine in the appellate court.

On the 15th, the Criminal Division 3 of Gwangju District Court (Chief Judge Jang Yong-gi) overturned the first trial's not guilty verdict and sentenced Park (28), who was indicted for forgery of official documents, to a fine of 100,000 won in the appellate trial.

Park was charged with impersonating the Blue House and sending a document on March 8 last year from the mail handling office of a university in Gwangju to the superintendents of education of 17 city and provincial offices of education nationwide and the Minister of Education, stating "Due to high fine dust levels, shorten classes."

The document was also found to include content such as sending smoking students to the Samcheong Education Center for re-education and banning presentation assignments during university class hours.

Initially, on March 7 of the same year, Park called the academic affairs office of his university to suggest shortening classes due to fine dust, but when the suggestion was rejected, he was investigated for forging an official document in the name of the president using a computer at his home.

The first trial ruled, "The document does not have the form and appearance of an official document. The Blue House logo is cut off at the top and bottom, and it differs from the general form and appearance of official documents, with sloppy content," and "It also contains childish or absurd content that is hard to believe as an official document in the president's name, such as banning presentations and assignments during university class hours," and acquitted Park.

However, the prosecution appealed, arguing "there is a factual error and legal misinterpretation in the original verdict," and the appellate court judged, "The original court's decision that forgery of official documents is established only when a document has the form and appearance that an ordinary person can believe it was created within the authority of a public official or public institution is appropriate."

However, "The prosecution provisionally applied the violation of the Minor Offenses Act as a charge and requested and was granted a change of indictment at this court," and "the provisional charge is recognized as guilty. Considering that Park has two previous convictions for obstruction of official duties by deception and other offenses," the court explained the sentencing reasons.

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