Court Rejects Appeal to Halt Forensic Examination of Park Won-soon Family's Mobile Phones

On the 13th, at the Korean Women's Hotline in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, Kim Jae-ryeon, the lead attorney of the law firm On·Sesang, revealed the secret chat room invitation message sent by Mayor Park Won-soon to complainant A during the press conference on the "Power Sexual Harassment Case by the Seoul Mayor." / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] The family of the late former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon filed a petition to the court to halt the digital forensic examination of Park's work mobile phone, but the petition was dismissed.

According to the legal community on the 10th, the Seoul Northern District Court rejected the family’s 'petition for reconsideration and suspension of execution regarding the forensic procedure' filed the previous day. If the dismissal is finalized, the police will be able to resume the analysis of the mobile phone. The family may file an appeal against the court’s dismissal decision.

Earlier, on July 22, following the death of former Mayor Park, the police began digital forensic work on the work mobile phone, which was among his belongings, to ascertain the circumstances of his death.

The police analysis team completed the imaging process, which involved transferring the entire data to prevent damage to the information on the phone after decrypting the password. However, the family filed a petition for reconsideration and suspension of execution with the court to halt the process, and the court accepted it, resulting in the suspension of the forensic examination. Since then, the mobile phone has been kept sealed at the forensic department storage of the National Police Agency.

Meanwhile, Kim Jae-ryeon, the legal representative of the victim of the sexual harassment allegations against former Mayor Park, posted on her Facebook page the previous day, stating, "With the dismissal of the petition for reconsideration, the previously halted forensic examination can now proceed," and emphasized that "a full forensic examination, not a partial one, is necessary."

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