Jung Kyung-shim's Side Hints at Appeal... "Appellate Court Repeats Original Trial Contrary to Expectations"

Attorney Kim Chil-jun, defense lawyer for Professor Jeong Gyeong-sim of Dongyang University, who was sentenced to four years in prison in the appellate court for admission corruption involving her children and suspicions of private equity funds, is answering questions from the press as he leaves the courtroom after the appellate sentencing hearing held at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the morning of the 11th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Professor Jung Kyung-shim of Dongyang University, who was indicted on charges related to her children's admission fraud and private equity funds, received a four-year prison sentence in the appellate court, the same as in the first trial. Professor Jung's legal team has expressed their intention to appeal to the Supreme Court.

On the 11th, Kim Chil-jun, a lawyer from the Dasan Law Firm representing Professor Jung, stated this to the press in front of the Seoul High Court building shortly after the Criminal Division 1-2 (Chief Judge Eom Sang-pil) sentenced Professor Jung to four years in prison, a fine of 50 million KRW, and ordered a confiscation of 10.61 million KRW during the appellate trial.

Previously, Professor Jung was indicted on 15 charges including her children's admission fraud and illegal investment in private equity funds, and was sentenced to four years in prison and detained in court during the first trial. The appellate court upheld all charges related to admission fraud as guilty, consistent with the first trial. Although there were some differences regarding the private equity fund and evidence tampering charges, most of the allegations were also ruled guilty.

In response, Lawyer Kim said, "The first trial's verdict was more of a confirmation bias than a rational logical development, so there was hope it would be corrected." He added, "Today's ruling simply repeated the original verdict, which is disappointing and regrettable."

Lawyer Kim criticized the appellate court's ruling that the evidence from the break room PC was 'lawful.' He stated, "Regardless of the guilt or innocence in this case, we believed that a correct judgment should be made in the process of judicial democratization and human rights protection that we have achieved." He also mentioned, "It is regrettable that various illegalities in the evidence acquisition process were maintained as in the first trial."

He further expressed frustration, saying, "It was frustrating that the perspective of judging 'building up specs for the admission system' from the current viewpoint has not been corrected." He added, "Of course, there are distorted and exaggerated parts in the specs, but before judicial judgment, there should have been national discussions and debates among admission experts."

However, he noted, "Changing a significant part of the charges related to insider trading to not guilty served as a condition to reduce the excessive fine in sentencing," and said, "I consider this fortunate." When asked about plans to appeal, he replied, "I think it is natural to appeal after reviewing the appellate court's verdict later."

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