Choi Kang-wook's Side Denies Charges at First Trial of Second Instance... "Targeted Prosecution"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] Choi Kang-wook, leader of the Open Democratic Party, who was indicted on charges of falsifying an internship confirmation letter for the son of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk and sentenced to loss of parliamentary membership in the first trial, denied the charges again in the appeal trial.

At the first appeal trial held on the 27th at the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Appeal Division 5-1 (Presiding Judges Choi Byung-ryul, Won Jeong-sook, Lee Gwan-hyung), Choi’s defense attorney argued, "The first trial, which found the defendant guilty, is an illegal judgment that misinterpreted facts and misunderstood the law."

They also pointed out that the first trial court misunderstood the content of the internship confirmation letter written by Choi in October 2017 when he was working as a lawyer at the law firm Cheongmaek for Cho’s son. The internship confirmation letter stated that Cho’s son’s internship hours were "twice a week for a total of 16 hours," but the first trial court interpreted this as "16 hours per week," whereas the defense argued it should be recognized as "a total of 16 hours."

This argument aims to overturn the first trial’s guilty verdict, which acknowledged that Cho’s son visited the Cheongmaek office several times during evenings or holidays to do English translation work but ruled guilty because it differed from the confirmation letter’s content.

The defense further stated, "Cho’s son submitted the internship confirmation letter out of desperation after failing the graduate school entrance exam, not to present it as a career achievement."

The defense also claimed that although Lee Sung-yoon, then head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office (currently head of the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office), opposed the indictment, the prosecution proceeded under the direction of then Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, arguing, "The defendant, a proponent of prosecutorial reform, was subjected to retaliatory and targeted prosecution."

However, the prosecution countered, "There is overwhelming evidence against the defendant," and "There was no disagreement among the prosecutors and chief prosecutors in charge of the investigation at the time regarding the indictment." They added, "The first trial considered the fact that the defendant did not gain any benefits from the crime as a favorable circumstance when sentencing, but since the defendant was appointed as a Blue House secretary after participating in this crime, it cannot be said that there were no tangible or intangible benefits."

Meanwhile, Choi was found guilty in the first trial of obstructing business by issuing a false internship confirmation letter for Cho’s son at the request of Cho’s spouse, Professor Jung Kyung-shim of Dongyang University, thereby interfering with the work of graduate school admissions officers, and was sentenced to eight months in prison with a two-year probation.

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