Constitutional Court Holds Final Hearing on Im Seong-geun Impeachment Case Today... PPT Battle Expected

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The third and final hearing for the impeachment trial of Im Seong-geun, former Chief Judge of the Busan High Court, who was impeached on charges of improperly intervening in three trials while serving as the Senior Criminal Presiding Judge at the Seoul Central District Court, will be held on the 10th.

The Constitutional Court will conduct the final hearing for the impeachment trial of former Chief Judge Im at 2 p.m. on that day in the main courtroom of Jaedong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

At the second hearing held on the 6th of last month, Yoon Nam-seok, Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, instructed both the petitioner and the respondent to prepare as the next hearing would conclude the evidence investigation and proceed with the final arguments.

Through the two previous hearings, the key issues of the case, the organization of the evidence list, and the documentary evidence examination have been largely completed.

On the day, the petitioner side will first explain the connection between each charge and the evidence through a presentation (PPT), after which the respondent side will rebut the petitioner’s claims and impeach the submitted evidence in order.

The petitioner requested about three hours for the PPT presentation at the previous hearing. However, the respondent side asked that if such time was granted to the petitioner, the same amount of time should be allocated to the respondent. Ultimately, the PPT time was set to one hour.

After the disputes over the charges and evidence between both sides conclude, the final arguments from both parties will proceed.

At the previous hearing, the petitioner requested the court to examine witnesses as well as the respondent, former Chief Judge Im himself, but this was not accepted.

Former Chief Judge Im appeared in person at the first hearing held on June 10 in the Constitutional Court’s main courtroom and expressed his position.

At that time, he apologized, saying, "I deeply apologize for causing a burden to the Constitutional Court and the judiciary, and for troubling those who cared for me and the citizens."

However, he argued, "I was deeply concerned whether the judges under my jurisdiction might be unfairly criticized by civic groups or public opinion, and I considered it my duty as a senior judge before being the Senior Presiding Judge to resolve such issues either before or after they arose," "and all three cases that became grounds for impeachment occurred under this background. My actions did not violate political neutrality nor did they infringe on judicial independence to promote the establishment of a Supreme Court of Appeals."

According to the summary of the charges by the National Assembly, former Chief Judge Im is accused of improperly intervening in three trials during 2015-2016 when he served as the Senior Criminal Presiding Judge at the Seoul Central District Court under former Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae: ▲a defamation case involving Kato Tatsuya, former Seoul bureau chief of Sankei Shimbun, related to reports on former President Park Geun-hye’s whereabouts on the day of the Sewol ferry disaster ▲a case involving lawyers from the Lawyers for a Democratic Society (Minbyun) charged with assault and injury during a Ssangyong Motor rally ▲a case involving professional baseball players Oh Seung-hwan and Lim Chang-yong charged with gambling.

In the Kato Tatsuya case, he requested the presiding judge of the trial to revise the interim judgment or the oral statement of the verdict. In the baseball players’ case, he summoned the judge who referred a summary order case to a formal trial and advised hearing opinions from other judges, which eventually led to the reversal of the decision. In the Minbyun lawyers’ assault case, he caused the modification of an already delivered verdict, thereby infringing on the constitutional independence of the judiciary and the independence of trials, and violating the Court Organization Act and the Criminal Procedure Act.

Meanwhile, before being impeached, former Chief Judge Im was indicted in March 2019 on the same charges as the impeachment grounds and underwent trial, but he was acquitted by the court in February last year.

The reason the first trial court acquitted him of abuse of authority was twofold: ▲for abuse of authority to be established, the act in question must be within the defendant’s general official duties, but as the Senior Criminal Presiding Judge, Im did not have such authority in the first place ▲there was no causal relationship recognized between Im’s actions and the measures taken by the presiding judges in each case.

However, while acquitting former Chief Judge Im, the Seoul Central District Court’s 25th Criminal Division (Presiding Judge Song In-kwon) stated in the judgment that Im’s actions could be considered illegal acts using the position of Senior Criminal Presiding Judge at the Seoul Central District Court and could constitute grounds for disciplinary action.

Notably, the court at the time referred to Im’s actions as "unconstitutional acts infringing on judicial independence," which sparked controversy.

The appellate trial verdict for former Chief Judge Im is scheduled for this Thursday (the 12th).

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