'Former Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center Director Found Not Guilty in Appeal Trial on Employee Hiring Pressure Charges'

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] The Daegu District Court Criminal Appeal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Nam Geun-wook) announced on the 14th that it acquitted former Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center Director A (65), who was indicted on charges of obstruction of business for exerting undue pressure during the employee recruitment process.

A was sentenced in the first trial to six months in prison with a two-year probation and 80 hours of community service and appealed. He was prosecuted for intervening in January 2016 in the recruitment process for senior and assistant-level employees at the Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center, improperly instructing the screening committee to pass three out of 37 applicants in the document screening stage. He was also accused of exerting pressure on the screening committee in the same manner during the February 2017 recruitment.

In court, A claimed, "I was involved in employee recruitment within the scope of legitimate business discretion, providing recommendations for candidates who appeared to be excellent talents, and did not instruct to pass only specific individuals in the document screening or to refrain from conducting the document screening."

The court stated, "As the defendant, being the center director, can exclude applicants deemed to meet the disqualification criteria from the final successful candidates regardless of interview scores, the defendant's actions cannot be seen as causing misunderstanding about the qualifications of document screening passers or creating a risk of impairing the appropriateness or fairness of the interview committee's duties."

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