Gwangju District Court's Ruling Against 'Public Legal Sentiment'... Court's Credibility Declines

Repeated Criticisms at the National Assembly Audit

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The Gwangju District Court has been criticized for losing trust due to rulings that contradict the public's sense of justice.

On the 8th, the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee conducted a national audit targeting the Gwangju District Court and other supervised institutions.

At the session, Kim Jong-min, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, raised concerns over the Gwangju District Court Jangheung Branch's dismissal of the arrest warrant for A (32), the mastermind operating a fake stock site accused of fraud in August.

Rep. Kim stated, "Since only prosecutors can request warrants under the Constitution, there are occasional protests claiming unfairness," adding, "To mediate such disputes, a warrant review committee was established at the High Prosecutors' Office in 2000."

He continued, "For the first time since the establishment of the warrant review committee, in July, the Gwangju High Prosecutors' Office's warrant review committee accepted the appropriateness of the request after the police requested the review," but "the court dismissed the warrant," he pointed out.

He also criticized, "Looking at the Jangheung Branch's warrant trial ruling at that time, there was a fact that A had retracted statements about accomplices, which suggests the possibility of evidence destruction," and "However, the ruling did not include any judgment regarding the possibility of evidence destruction."

He added, "The reasons for dismissal overall indicate that there is room for dispute and that the investigation process should be observed," and "Therefore, from the public's perspective, there is suspicion that the defense lawyer of suspect A is connected to the former head of the Jangheung Branch."

Furthermore, he stated, "Considering the purpose of the system, if the warrant review committee judged the request as appropriate, judges should have regarded it as a fact to be sufficiently considered during the warrant trial," and "This is a case that affects trust in the judiciary."

The lack of an internal evaluation system within the court regarding the problematic trial was also brought up.

Rep. Kim emphasized, "Judges tend to think that interfering in other trials is an infringement of judicial authority, but evaluations of concluded cases should be actively conducted."

Referring to the U.S. example, he said, "Judges there engage in significant criticism among themselves, and evaluation forums are held very freely," suggesting that our judiciary should emulate this.

He warned, "If this continues, external parties will raise issues about judges' rulings, and laws to audit these may need to be enacted," emphasizing, "There must be proactive efforts to resolve public distrust."

In response, Ko Young-gu, Chief Judge of the Gwangju District Court, said, "It is not appropriate for me as the court chief to comment on specific trials."

However, he pledged, "Considering that the public often does not accept the reasons for warrant dismissals and that this affects trust in the court, we will work hard to ensure the appropriateness of warrant trials through active discussions within the court."

Criticism also arose regarding some inappropriate rulings on forced molestation cases that occurred within military units this year.

Jeon Ju-hye, a member of the People Power Party, said, "The defendant in the case received a suspended sentence, and the reason for sentencing was recorded as a first offense," but "the defendant also had a suspended indictment charge while in the military, so recording it as a first offense is inappropriate."

She added, "Of course, determining guilt or innocence is the judge's most important duty," and "Since public interest in sentencing reasons has increased, care must be taken to avoid misunderstandings when recording these reasons."

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