'Blacklist in the Cultural Sector' Kim Ki-chun and Cho Yoon-sun, Retrial Begins

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The retrial of former Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-chun and former Blue House Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Cho Yoon-sun, who were indicted in connection with the 'cultural blacklist' incident during the Park Geun-hye administration, has begun.

On the 14th, the Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Ham Sang-hoon, Kim Min-ki, Ha Tae-han) held the first hearing against former Chief of Staff Kim and former Senior Secretary Cho, who were indicted on charges including abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights.

On this day, both sides reviewed how they would present their opinions in future hearings and whether there were additional witnesses to be added, and the session ended in just 10 minutes. The second hearing was scheduled for March 9.

Former Chief of Staff Kim and former Senior Secretary Cho are accused of ordering the creation of documents listing the names of groups and artists critical of the government along with reasons for excluding them from support, and based on these documents, excluding them from receiving government funding.

In the first trial, former Chief of Staff Kim was found guilty only of the exclusion from support and was sentenced to three years in prison, but in the second trial, an additional charge of forcing a first-grade public official to resign was recognized, increasing the sentence to four years.

Former Senior Secretary Cho was found guilty only of perjury in the first trial and was sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year probation, but in the second trial, some charges of abuse of authority were recognized as guilty, and she was sentenced to two years in prison.

However, in January of last year, the Supreme Court overturned the case and sent it back to the Seoul High Court, citing a misunderstanding of the legal principles regarding abuse of authority and insufficient trial.

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