Former Chief Judge Im Seong-geun Acquitted of Charges of Trial Interference

1st and 2nd Instance Courts "Recognize Violation of Judicial Independence... Abuse of Authority Crime Legally Not Established"

Im Seong-geun, former Chief Judge of Busan High Court.
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] Former Busan High Court Chief Judge Im Seong-geun, who was prosecuted for intervening in frontline trials during the tenure of former Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae, has been acquitted.

With the acquittal of former Chief Judge Im, all 14 current and former judges indicted in connection with the 'judicial scandal' have been acquitted by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Min Yoo-sook) on the 28th upheld the lower court's acquittal ruling in the final appeal trial of former Chief Judge Im, who was charged with abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights.

Former Chief Judge Im was prosecuted for intervening in the trial of the Seoul bureau chief of the Japanese Sankei Shimbun, who was charged with defamation of former President Park Geun-hye in 2015, while serving as the senior criminal presiding judge at the Seoul Central District Court.

Additionally, former Chief Judge Im is accused of intervening in trials, such as instructing the first-instance judge in the case involving lawyers from the Lawyers for a Democratic Society to review sentencing expressions, and ordering a review of a summary order for a famous professional baseball player's gambling offense.

Earlier, the first-instance court acknowledged that "former Chief Judge Im's intervention in the trial infringed on judicial independence," but ruled that "legally, the crime of abuse of authority does not apply," and acquitted him. The second-instance court also upheld the first-instance ruling, stating that "the prosecution's facts fall under cases where there is no proof of crime, and the acquittal ruling by the lower court is appropriate."

The Supreme Court also agreed with the lower courts' judgments. The court stated, "There is no error in the lower court's ruling that acquitted based on lack of proof of the prosecution's facts, nor did it violate the rules of logic and experience, exceed the limits of free evaluation of evidence, or misinterpret the legal principles regarding the establishment of abuse of authority."

Earlier, the National Assembly filed the first-ever impeachment trial request against a judge, targeting former Chief Judge Im last year. However, in October of last year, the Constitutional Court dismissed the impeachment trial request against former Chief Judge Im by a 5 (dismissal) to 3 (acceptance) vote. The Constitutional Court ruled that since former Chief Judge Im had already retired from his judicial position due to term expiration during the impeachment trial proceedings, dismissal was appropriate as the impeachment trial did not meet the legal requirements.

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