"'Unfair Hiring of Dismissed Teachers' Jo Hee-yeon Denies Charges Again in 2nd Trial: 'Policy Decision'"

Cho Hee-yeon, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent who was sentenced to a suspended prison term in the first trial for unfairly specially hiring dismissed teachers, once again denied the charges in the appellate trial, stating that "I did not give any illegal orders."

Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of Education of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education [Photo by Yonhap News]

On the 22nd, Superintendent Cho attended the first appellate trial held by the 13th Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judges Kim Woo-soo, Kim Jin-ha, Lee In-soo) and said, "While exercising the authority entrusted by the citizens of Seoul, I have never conducted administration shamefully. I will do my best to sufficiently clarify this so that the court can make a comprehensive judgment."

Superintendent Cho was indicted on charges of abusing authority and violating the National Public Officials Act for unfairly specially hiring five dismissed teachers, including those from the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (Jeon-gyo-jo), between October and December 2018. In the first trial, he was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 2-year suspension.

At the trial, Cho’s defense attorney argued that the charges pertain to the actions of the former chief and personnel officers who carried out the practical work, not Superintendent Cho himself, and therefore the charges of abuse of authority cannot be applied. A former secretary who was indicted alongside Superintendent Cho was sentenced to 10 months in prison with a 2-year suspension in the first trial.

The defense attorney criticized, saying, "The special hiring was a policy decision aimed at realizing public values such as expanding the political basic rights of teachers. The prosecution framed this as the hottest abuse of authority and personnel corruption case in South Korea."

The prosecution countered, stating, "Superintendent Cho had a motive to receive political benefits such as support from Jeon-gyo-jo, which is a highly personal illegal personnel request. The defendants made fair competition impossible, and such 'turning a blind eye' situations could be repeated."

According to the Education Autonomy Act and the Public Official Election Act, if sentenced to imprisonment without suspension or higher, Superintendent Cho would lose his position as superintendent if the first trial verdict is upheld.

This case is the first case investigated by the High-ranking Officials’ Crime Investigation Division (Public Officials Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, POGO), which was launched in 2021. However, since POGO can only indict judges, prosecutors, or high-ranking police officers, the prosecution took over the case, indicted Superintendent Cho, and is maintaining the prosecution.

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