Moon Emphasized 'Procedural Legitimacy'... Court Rules "Flaws in Yoon Seok-yeol Disciplinary Process"

President Moon Jae-in and Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl attending the 6th Fair Society Anti-Corruption Policy Council held at the Blue House last June. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] President Moon Jae-in stated on the 3rd that "procedural legitimacy and fairness are very important" regarding the operation of the Ministry of Justice's Prosecutor Disciplinary Committee. He emphasized that there should be no procedural flaws in the disciplinary action against Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol. However, on the 24th, the court's review revealed that the Ministry of Justice's disciplinary committee committed procedural errors during the disciplinary process against Prosecutor General Yoon, despite President Moon's message. This effectively became a misstep that led to the failure of the 'Yoon Seok-yeol ousting' campaign spearheaded by Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae.

The Seoul Administrative Court, Administrative Division 12 (Presiding Judge Hong Soon-ok), on the afternoon of the same day, granted the suspension of execution request filed by Prosecutor General Yoon's side against Minister Choo regarding the two-month suspension disciplinary action, pointing out problems in the Ministry of Justice's disciplinary decision. The court stated, "There were procedural flaws in the process of deciding on the disqualification request for disciplinary committee members, so it is difficult to conclude that Prosecutor General Yoon's side has no chance of winning the main claim." The court judged that due to some procedural flaws in Yoon's disciplinary process, suspending the effect of the disciplinary action was appropriate.

Earlier, during the first review held on the 10th of this month, the Ministry of Justice's disciplinary committee dismissed the disqualification request for disciplinary committee members submitted by Prosecutor General Yoon's side with a vote of three committee members. Regarding this, the court ruled, "The total number of disciplinary committee members is seven, and to decide on a disqualification request, a majority of the members, i.e., at least four members, must be present," adding, "A disqualification decision made by only three members, which is not a majority, lacks a quorum and is invalid." According to the Prosecutor Disciplinary Act, when a disqualification request is submitted, the decision on disqualification must be made by a majority of the attending members.

The Ministry of Justice argued, based on Supreme Court precedents, that "the member who is the subject of the disqualification request should be excluded from the quorum," and that "a disqualification decision can be made with the attendance of a majority of three or more out of six members." Their logic was that excluding the member who received the disqualification request, deciding on disqualification with the participation of three members would not be problematic. However, the court did not accept this, stating that the Supreme Court precedent cited by the Ministry of Justice concerned the interpretation of the Commercial Act before the amendment of the law and was different from the Prosecutor Disciplinary Act, making it inappropriate to apply in this case.

Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, who returned to work following the Administrative Court's approval of the suspension of the disciplinary action against him, is arriving at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 25th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The court also stated, "The disciplinary decision is invalid due to lack of quorum." This means that since the decision was made with the participation of committee members formed through improper procedures, the disciplinary committee's decision has no effect. In other words, the Ministry of Justice's 'two-month suspension' disciplinary action against Prosecutor General Yoon could be nullified.

This judgment by the court is expected to influence the main cancellation lawsuit in the future. The main lawsuit will focus on the legality of the disciplinary procedures. Previously, President Moon emphasized 'procedural legitimacy,' and the Ministry of Justice's disciplinary committee accepted Prosecutor General Yoon's side's request to postpone the review date, which was interpreted as a measure mindful of the main lawsuit.

However, since the court recognized some procedural flaws during the disciplinary review process, the outlook is that the main lawsuit will not be easy. A lawyer in Seocho-dong commented, "If Prosecutor General Yoon's side had no chance of winning the main lawsuit, the suspension of execution request would have been dismissed from the start."

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