Supreme Court Confirms Not Guilty Verdict for Kim Ki-chun on 'Sewol Ferry Report Time Manipulation' Charges

On November 16 last year, Kim Ki-chun, former Chief Presidential Secretary who was indicted for allegedly falsifying the times former President Park Geun-hye received reports on the day of the Sewol ferry disaster, is answering questions from reporters as he leaves the Seoul High Court in Seocho-dong, Seoul, after being acquitted at the retrial sentencing hearing.

The acquittal of former Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-chun, who was prosecuted on charges of falsifying the time former President Park Geun-hye received reports on the day of the Sewol ferry disaster, has been finalized.

On the 29th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dong-won) dismissed the prosecution's appeal and upheld the lower court's verdict of not guilty in the final appeal trial against Kim, who was charged with falsifying official documents and using falsified official documents.

The court stated, "The retrial court is bound by the factual and legal judgments made by the appellate court as reasons for reversal," adding, "The lower court's decision to overturn the guilty verdict from the first trial and acquit the defendant after remand is justified and in accordance with the intent of the remand ruling. There is no error in the lower court's judgment such as failing to conduct necessary hearings, violating the rules of logic and experience, exceeding the limits of free evaluation of evidence, or misunderstanding the law regarding the crime of falsifying official documents."

Kim was accused of submitting a written statement to the National Assembly, along with former National Security Office Director Kim Jang-soo, falsely stating that "the Presidential Secretariat reported continuously every 20 to 30 minutes via wired and wireless communication, so the President was more aware of the situation than through direct face-to-face reports" regarding the time former President Park received situation reports on the day of the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014.

According to the prosecution's investigation, on April 16, 2014, the day of the Sewol ferry incident, the written report reached the presidential residence where former President Park was staying at around 10:19 to 10:20 a.m., and Kim Jang-soo made the first phone report to the President at 10:22 a.m.

However, at that time, the Blue House claimed that former President Park received the written report around 10 a.m. and instructed "all-out rescue" during a phone call with Kim Jang-soo at around 10:15 a.m., which was a false assertion.

Earlier, the first and second trials found that the materials Kim submitted to the National Assembly were false and sentenced him to one year in prison with a two-year probation. However, Kim Jang-soo was acquitted.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court found the lower court's judgment on Kim Ki-chun to be incorrect.

The Supreme Court ruled, "The written response submitted to the National Assembly contains a mixture of fact-checking and opinion parts," and "the fact-checked parts correspond to objective reporting details such as the total number of reports, times, and methods sent by the Presidential Secretariat and the Blue House National Security Office to the attached secretaries or the presidential residence, so they are not false."

The Supreme Court also judged that the part of the written response stating "I think the situation was understood" was "merely the defendant's subjective opinion and not a matter of fact verification."

Furthermore, since Kim prepared the written response with the same content as his sworn testimony as a witness at the National Assembly's special investigation committee, it was difficult to conclude that he had the awareness of falsity.

Following this Supreme Court ruling, the Seoul High Court, which handled the retrial, acquitted Kim in November last year. The prosecution appealed the retrial verdict, but the Supreme Court's judgment remained unchanged.

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