'Abuse of Authority' Probation for Jeong Jin-woong, Appeal Trial Starts Next Month

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[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The first appeal trial of Jeong Jin-ung, a research fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, who is accused of assaulting Prosecutor General Han Dong-hoon during a search and seizure operation, will begin next month. Jeong was sentenced to probation in the first trial.

According to the legal community on the 23rd, the Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Yoon Seung-eun, Kim Dae-hyun, Ha Tae-han) will hold the first appeal trial of Jeong, who is on trial for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (official assault), on October 28.

Jeong is accused of assaulting Prosecutor Han, causing injuries requiring three weeks of medical treatment, while attempting to seize the SIM card from Han’s mobile phone during an investigation into former Channel A reporter Lee Dong-jae’s alleged attempted coercion, when Jeong was serving as a senior prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in July last year.

Jeong’s defense argued that the physical contact was unavoidable while preventing Prosecutor Han from attempting to destroy evidence, but the first trial recognized guilt and sentenced him to four months in prison with one year probation and one year disqualification. However, the court ruled that it was difficult to acknowledge that Prosecutor Han sustained injuries from the assault, acquitting Jeong of that part, and applied the criminal law’s official assault charge rather than the aggravated punishment law’s official assault charge.

Meanwhile, despite the controversy over official assault, Jeong was promoted to deputy chief prosecutor at the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office and then transferred to the Ulsan District Prosecutors' Office as deputy chief prosecutor, but after the first trial sentence, he was effectively suspended from duty and transferred to a research fellow position at the Judicial Research and Training Institute.

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