[Breaking] Prosecution Seeks 7-Year Prison Sentence for Former Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae in 'Judicial Farming' Case

The prosecution has requested the court to sentence former Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae to seven years in prison on charges of 'judicial manipulation.' This comes approximately four years and seven months after Yang was indicted.

On the 15th, the prosecution demanded a seven-year prison term during the first trial's closing hearing for former Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae and former Supreme Court Justices Park Byeong-dae and Go Young-han, who are accused of abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights. The hearing was held at the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 35-1 (Presiding Judge Lee Jong-min, Judges Lim Jeong-taek and Min So-young). In the morning session, the prosecution presented its sentencing opinion and recommended sentence to the court, and in the afternoon, the three defendants are scheduled to deliver their final statements.

Previously, the prosecution indicted former Chief Justice Yang on February 11, 2019, on a total of 47 charges including various interferences in trials, creation of a judicial blacklist, and embezzlement of slush funds. Yang and other former judicial leaders are accused of intervening in cases of interest to the government during the Park Geun-hye administration, seeking cooperation from the Blue House and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for key projects such as the introduction of a high-level appellate court and overseas dispatch of judges. The prosecution alleges that the Yang Seung-tae judiciary improperly interfered in lawsuits such as compensation claims filed by victims of forced labor under Japanese colonial rule against Japanese war crime companies, the lawsuit to confirm the status of former Unified Progressive Party lawmakers, administrative lawsuits related to the notification of the National Teachers' Union (Jeon Gyo-jo) as an illegal union, and the criminal trial concerning former National Intelligence Service Director Won Sei-hoon's manipulation of online comments, leading to the indictment of Yang and others.

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