Jo Guk and Jeong Gyeong-sim Trials Merged... 'Well'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The indictment of Professor Jung Kyung-shim of Dongyang University, who was indicted last November on charges including admission fraud involving her children, mentions the name of her husband, former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, a total of 11 times. Besides explanations of family relationships and motives for the crime, his name appears 9 times in relation to the facts of the case. However, the prosecution did not designate former Minister Cho as a co-conspirator with Professor Jung in the indictment. Moreover, in the parts of the indictment concerning admission fraud at Seoul National University Medical School and the instruction to forge and conceal evidence, former Minister Cho's name is not mentioned even once.

On the other hand, the indictment of former Minister Cho, filed at the end of December last year, includes Professor Jung's name as many as 45 times in relation to these matters. It designates Professor Jung as a co-conspirator in the Seoul National University Medical School admission fraud and as an accomplice in the instruction to forge and conceal evidence. This is the reason why the prosecution applied on the 25th to amend Professor Jung's indictment. By adding this content to the amended indictment, they intend to emphasize the necessity of consolidating the trials of the two individuals.

Earlier, when the prosecution sent former Minister Cho to trial, they requested the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 25, which was handling Professor Jung's case, to consolidate the cases. The reason was that the related charges and evidence largely overlapped. However, the presiding judge at the time, Chief Judge Song In-kwon, did not accept this. Chief Judge Song stated, "There are many differences between former Minister Cho's case and the other, and the presiding judge does not agree." The presiding judge mentioned here refers to Chief Judge Kim Mi-ri of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 21, which is handling former Minister Cho's case.

After Chief Judge Song was transferred to another court due to recent judicial personnel changes, the prosecution again requested case consolidation and applied for indictment amendment. The prosecution argues that if this indictment amendment application is accepted, the cases of Professor Jung and former Minister Cho should be consolidated and promptly tried.

However, legal circles analyze that the possibility of this indictment amendment leading to case consolidation is low. Even if the indictment amendment is accepted, combining the two cases would make the scope of the trial excessively broad for the court to handle. A lawyer in Seocho-dong said, "Unless the presiding court handles only this case, consolidation does not seem easy," adding, "There is a method to separate only the overlapping charges and reassign them, but such cases are rare."

The prosecution has also requested consolidation to Criminal Division 21. However, the burden of case consolidation is equally heavy for Criminal Division 21. In addition to former Minister Cho's case, Criminal Division 21 is handling the case of Cho Kuk's younger brother, Cho Kwon, as well as 13 other cases including that of Song Cheol-ho, Mayor of Ulsan, who was indicted on suspicion of ordered investigations and election interference by the Blue House. This means that major cases are concentrated within the court, leaving no capacity to handle consolidated cases.