Prosecutors Indict Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon Without Detention Over Alleged Special Recruitment of Dismissed Teachers

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The prosecution has indicted Seoul Superintendent of Education Cho Hee-yeon without detention on suspicion of special recruitment of dismissed teachers.

On the 24th, the Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Seon-hyeok) indicted Superintendent Cho without detention on charges of abuse of authority and violation of the National Public Officials Act, and also indicted former Chief Secretary Han, who was in charge of the practical work, as an accomplice.

Superintendent Cho and Mr. Han are suspected of improperly conducting special recruitment of five dismissed teachers, including those from the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (Jeon-gyo-jo), between October and December 2018.

The prosecution judged that Superintendent Cho, despite opposition from intermediate approvers such as department heads, directors, and deputy superintendents during the approval process of documents related to the special recruitment, made unilateral approvals, thereby obstructing the exercise of intermediate approval authority by the officials in charge. Additionally, Mr. Han was found to have unfairly involved himself in the overall practical work, including colluding with Superintendent Cho to unfairly select the screening committee members.

On the other hand, Superintendent Cho's side claimed that Mr. Han only gave advice to the recruitment officials during the special recruitment process and did not issue instructions, and denied having coerced personnel committee members to attend the personnel committee meetings.

This case was the first case numbered 'Gongje 1' after the establishment of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), and after about four months of investigation, the prosecution review committee decided in August this year to indict. Subsequently, on September 3rd, the CIO transferred the case to the prosecution with an indictment opinion. During this process, the CIO operated an internal 'Red Team' in addition to the prosecution review committee, which included external experts, to internally verify the decision to request prosecution.

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