O Gyu-seok, Mayor of Gijang-gun, Acquitted of Abuse of Power by Supreme Court, Case Remanded

Supreme Court: "Discretion of Personnel Authority Should Be Broadly Respected Unless Unreasonable"
Governor Oh: "Truth and Legal Principles Revealed to Clear Injustice... Sincerely Repaying Residents Through Work"

Oh Gyuseok, Mayor of Busan Gijang County. (Photo by Gijang County)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] The Supreme Court overturned and remanded the case of Oh Gyu-seok, the mayor of Busan Gijang County, who was tried on charges of interfering with civil servant promotion personnel affairs, ruling him not guilty.

The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Judge Ahn Cheol-sang) announced on the 15th that it overturned the appellate court's decision, which sentenced Mayor Oh to a 10 million won fine on charges including abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights, and sent the case back to the Busan District Court on the 14th.

Mayor Oh was indicted on charges of instructing the personnel officer to increase the number of promotion candidates from 16 to 17 in July 2015 to promote a specific civil servant to the grade 5 administrative officer position, and then having the personnel committee review it.

The prosecution indicted him on the grounds that Mayor Oh exerted influence on the personnel committee to promote a specific employee.

Both the first and second trial courts recognized Mayor Oh's guilt and sentenced him to a 10 million won fine.

However, the Supreme Court ruled, "The number of planned promotions is a result of the appointing authority predicting and estimating vacancies by considering the annual retirement rate and expected increase in personnel, so it cannot be concluded that the calculation of the number of planned promotions was illegal," and added, "The discretionary judgment of the administrative agency should be broadly respected unless its content is manifestly unreasonable."

Regarding abuse of authority, the court stated, "Although there is a regulation that the personnel committee must conduct prior review regarding promotion appointments, the appointing authority may decide the promotion candidates differently from the review and resolution results," and further explained, "If the personnel committee, whose members have guaranteed status, did not conduct in-depth deliberation and simply approved the specific candidate proposed by the appointing authority, it is only that the members themselves exercised their authority passively."

Mayor Oh commented on the Supreme Court ruling, saying, "The facts and legal principles have been well clarified, and my grievances have been resolved," and added, "I have acted solely according to law and principles and have worked with integrity and honesty. I exercised my authority legitimately as the head of the local government under the Local Autonomy Act. I apologize for causing concern to the 170,000 residents, but I will repay them with sincerity in my work for the county administration."

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