Supreme Court Upholds Acquittal of Gyeongbuk Superintendent Lim Jongsik on Bribery Charges

First Trial: 2 Years and 6 Months in Prison
Acquittal on Appeal: "Illegally Collected Evidence" Leads to Not Guilty Verdict

Lim Jongsik, Superintendent of Gyeongbuk Provincial Office of Education.

Lim Jongsik, Superintendent of Education for Gyeongbuk Province, who was put on trial on charges of giving and receiving bribes during the election process, has been acquitted with a final verdict of not guilty.

The Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Oh Kyungmi) on September 25 upheld the not-guilty verdict from the appellate court for Superintendent Lim, who had been indicted on charges including violation of the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (bribery).

Superintendent Lim was brought to trial on allegations that, during the 7th Gyeongbuk Superintendent of Education election in 2018, he orchestrated an election campaign using an organization made up of Gyeongbuk Provincial Office of Education staff and provided money and valuables in return.

The key issue in the trial was whether it was lawful to use as evidence the electronic information from an accomplice's mobile phone, which was discovered by chance during a search and seizure operation, without obtaining a new warrant for the search and seizure.

The court of first instance ruled that the evidence obtained from the accomplice's mobile phone was collected illegally and did not recognize some of its evidentiary value. However, it considered the testimonies of the defendant and witnesses in court to be admissible and found Lim guilty, sentencing him to two years and six months in prison, a fine of 35 million won, and ordering the forfeiture of 37 million won.

However, the appellate court reached a different conclusion. The appellate court stated, "As a rule, evidence collected without following the procedures set by the Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Act, as well as secondary evidence obtained based on such evidence, cannot be used to establish guilt. The defendant's testimony in court also constitutes secondary evidence based on illegally collected evidence, and therefore none of it is admissible." The court then acquitted Superintendent Lim.

The Supreme Court also agreed with the appellate court's judgment. The bench stated, "There was no error in the lower court's interpretation of the law regarding the legality of the search and seizure of electronic information and the exceptions to the exclusionary rule for illegally collected evidence."

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