Court: "Prosecution Service's Non-Indictment of Yoon Seok-yeol for 'Han Myeong-sook Obstruction of Perjury Investigation' is Justified"… Sasaehaeng's Reconsideration Request Dismissed

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is meeting with Philippe Lefort, the French Ambassador to Korea, at the transition committee office in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 27th. Photo by Transition Committee Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The court has ruled that the decision by the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit (PCC) to not indict President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol, who was accused of obstructing the investigation into the 'Former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook's false testimony coaching case,' was justified.

According to the legal community on the 29th, the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 30 (Presiding Judges Bae Gwang-guk, Jo Jin-gu, Park Eun-young) dismissed the rehearing petition filed by the civic group Judicial Justice Restoration Civic Action (Sasaehaeng) against the PCC's non-indictment decision regarding President-elect Yoon.

The court stated the reason for dismissal, saying, "After thoroughly reviewing the case records and all materials submitted by the petitioner, the prosecutor's non-indictment decision can be accepted, and there is a lack of evidence to recognize the non-indictment decision as unjust."

A rehearing petition is a system where the complainant or accuser requests the court to reconsider a non-indictment decision made by the prosecution or PCC. If the court accepts the rehearing petition, the prosecution must file charges.

The suspicion of 'obstruction of investigation into former Prime Minister Han's false testimony coaching case' involves allegations that President-elect Yoon and former Legal Research and Training Institute Director Cho Nam-gwan, who were Prosecutor General and Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office respectively in May 2020, obstructed the investigation into prosecutors coaching witnesses to give false testimony in former Prime Minister Han's trial.

The PCC initiated an investigation last year after Sasaehaeng's accusation, charging the two with abuse of authority and dereliction of duty, but in February this year, they were cleared due to insufficient evidence.

Regarding the rehearing petition filed by Lim Eun-jung, the Ministry of Justice's Inspection Officer who separately accused President-elect Yoon, the court's decision has not yet been made.

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