Supreme Court: "Insufficient Evidence to Prove Ghostwriting by Active Prosecutor Suspected of Thesis Fraud"

Court: "Difficult to Conclude That Graduate School Work Obstruction Occurred"

A current prosecutor's suspected ghostwriting of a thesis was found guilty in the first and second trials, but was overturned by the Supreme Court. It was determined that the thesis could not be definitively concluded to have been ghostwritten.

The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dong-won) announced on the 28th that it overturned the original verdict sentencing Prosecutor Jeong Mo to 8 months in prison with a 2-year probation for obstruction of business, and remanded the case to the Seoul Central District Court.

Prosecutor Jeong was indicted on charges of obstructing the graduate school's review process by submitting and presenting a thesis written by a graduate student as a preliminary examination for his doctoral dissertation in December 2016, under the direction of his advisor.

The first and second trials concluded that the thesis presented by Prosecutor Jeong was indeed written by a graduate student on his behalf, and sentenced him to 8 months in prison with a 2-year probation.

However, the Supreme Court's judgment differed. The Supreme Court ruled that it could not be definitively concluded that the thesis submitted by Prosecutor Jeong was ghostwritten. The court stated, "It is insufficient to consider that the fact of fabricating the preliminary examination materials was proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and even if the preliminary examination materials submitted had undergone revisions and supplements by the advisor, it is difficult to conclude that this caused misunderstanding, misconception, or negligence to the graduate school dean or others, or that it resulted in the risk of causing obstruction of business."

Jeong Mo's younger sister, former Professor Jeong Mo, was also indicted for publishing three theses ghostwritten by graduate students as if she had written them herself in academic journals between 2017 and 2018. She was sentenced to 8 months in prison with a 2-year probation in the first and second trials. The Supreme Court upheld the lower courts' rulings regarding former Professor Jeong.

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