Conclusion After About 3 Years... Woo Byung-woo's Appeal Trial Verdict This Week for 'Aiding the State Affairs Manipulation'

'Environmental Ministry Blacklist' Kim Eun-kyung Also Faces First Trial Verdict This Week

Woo Byung-woo, former Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs at the Blue House [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The appellate court ruling on Woo Byung-woo, former Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs at the Blue House, who was prosecuted for condoning state affairs manipulation during the Park Geun-hye administration and conducting illegal surveillance through the National Intelligence Service (NIS), is expected this week.

According to the legal community on the 31st, the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 2 (Presiding Judge Ham Sang-hoon) will hold the appellate sentencing hearing for Woo, who was indicted on charges including abuse of authority, on the morning of the 4th of next month. Woo was charged with neglecting to investigate the misconduct of Choi and others related to the Mir and K-Sports Foundations, and instead advising former Blue House Policy Coordination Secretary Ahn Jong-beom on legal countermeasures, thereby abetting the state affairs manipulation scandal. He was also prosecuted for illegal surveillance by ordering former NIS National Interest Information Bureau Chief Chu Myung-ho to conduct a background check on former Special Inspector Lee Seok-soo in 2016.

In the first trial, Woo was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months and 1 year and 6 months imprisonment for these cases respectively. In the appellate trial, the two cases were consolidated and heard together. The sentencing hearing was originally scheduled for the 28th of this month but was postponed once. At the prosecution’s closing arguments last year, a 13-year prison sentence was requested for Woo. On the other hand, Woo has pleaded not guilty.

On the day following Woo’s appellate trial, the 5th, the appellate sentencing hearing for Choi Yoon-soo, former NIS Deputy Director 2, who was indicted for involvement in illegal surveillance by the NIS alongside Woo, will be held. Choi, who is also a college friend of Woo, was charged with approving the process in which former NIS National Interest Information Bureau Chief Chu Myung-ho conducted background checks on former Special Inspector Lee Seok-soo and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism officials and reported to Woo. He is also accused of involvement in the so-called ‘blacklist operation’ that excluded cultural and artistic figures critical of the Park Geun-hye administration from Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism support. Choi’s case will be sentenced by the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Jung Jun-young). The prosecution requested a 2 years and 6 months prison sentence at the closing arguments. The previous first trial court sentenced him to 8 months imprisonment with 2 years probation and 2 years disqualification.

Meanwhile, prior to these rulings, on the 3rd, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 25-1 (Presiding Judge Kim Sun-hoe) will hold the first trial sentencing hearing for Kim Eun-kyung, former Minister of Environment, who was indicted on suspicion of the ‘Ministry of Environment Blacklist’. Kim was prosecuted for demanding resignation letters from 15 executives of public institutions under the Ministry of Environment appointed during the previous administration from 2017 to January 2019, receiving resignation letters from 13 of them. She is also accused of intervening in recruitment corruption by instructing that candidates preselected by the Blue House be appointed during the public recruitment process of public institutions under the Ministry of Environment. The prosecution requested a 5-year prison sentence for Kim at the closing arguments held in November last year.

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