"Jo Guk's Abuse of Authority Charges Are Not Guilty" Opinion Submitted to Court

Former President Moon Jae-in submitted a statement of opinion to the second trial panel of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, expressing the view that the charge of 'covering up the inspection of Yoo Jae-soo' is not guilty.

On the 16th, Cho's defense attorney submitted this statement, a personal fact inquiry response from former President Moon, as evidence at the continuation trial held by the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 13 (Presiding Judges Kim Woo-soo, Kim Jin-ha, and Lee In-soo).

In this document, former President Moon stated, "The authority to decide on the start and end of the inspection and the disposition should all be considered to belong to the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs."

The termination of the inspection of Yoo Jae-soo, former Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs of Busan, was an exercise of authority by former Minister Cho Kuk, who was then the Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs, and the difference between the inspection team's opinion and the result does not mean that his exercise of authority was obstructed.

This is the first time former President Moon has directly expressed an opinion on former Minister Cho's trial.

When the prosecution asked, "Did former President Moon write and sign this directly, or did he read the opinion letter sent to him and then sign it?" the defense attorney replied, "He wrote it directly and sent it."

In response, the prosecution stated, "It is difficult to consider that he directly wrote it in terms of form and content, as the legal opinion was expressed based on personal friendship with the defendant," and expressed disagreement with the acceptance of the evidence.

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