Superintendent Lee Jeongseon Faces Warrant Hearing Over Alleged Intervention in High School Classmate's Appointment

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The court will decide on December 11 whether to issue an arrest warrant for Lee Jeongseon, Superintendent of the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, who is suspected of unfairly intervening in the appointment of a high school classmate as auditor.

Kim Yeonkyung, the presiding judge in charge of warrants at the Gwangju District Court, conducted a pre-arrest warrant hearing for Superintendent Lee at 11:00 a.m. on charges including abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights.

Lee Jeongseon, Superintendent of Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, is attending the pre-arrest warrant hearing at Gwangju District Court in Dong-gu, Gwangju, on the morning of the 11th. The superintendent is suspected of intervening in the appointment of his high school classmate during the recruitment process for the auditor position at the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education in 2022. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Superintendent Lee appeared in court at around 10:40 a.m. ahead of the hearing and stated at the photo line, "There are many aspects of the prosecution's investigation that do not align with the facts, so I feel greatly wronged."

Superintendent Lee is accused of intervening to ensure that his high school classmate was ultimately selected during the recruitment process for the auditor position at the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education in 2022. The case surfaced after teacher organizations and others raised concerns, prompting the prosecution to launch a direct investigation, including a search and seizure at the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education in March of this year.

Superintendent Lee’s legal team claims that the prosecution’s investigation is unlawful, arguing that the police had already concluded in September last year that there was no evidence of wrongdoing, but the prosecution later reopened the case as a separate investigation. The legality of the prosecution’s investigation is currently under review by the Supreme Court through an appeal.

The official (team leader level) who was in charge of the recruitment process for the auditor position in 2022 was indicted on charges including obstruction of official duties by fraudulent means for allegedly attempting to alter the interview scores to change the ranking. In the first trial, the official was sentenced to one year and six months in prison.

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