'Trial on Jo Guk and Ulsan Mayor Election Interference' Presided by Chief Judge Ma Seong-yeong... Succeeding Chief Judge Kim Mi-ri

Masungyoung, Chief Judge of Seoul Central District Court. / Photo by Legal News

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] Masungyoung (56, 29th class), a chief judge who has been assigned as the successor to Kim Miri (52, 26th class), chief judge of the Seoul Central District Court who has been presiding over trials related to the administration such as the case of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, the Ulsan mayoral election interference case, and the Yoo Jae-soo inspection cover-up case.

On the 20th, the Seoul Central District Court announced that the Judges' Office Assignment Committee resolved to reassign Chief Judge Ma of the Civil Division 54 Single Judge to the Criminal Division 21, to which Chief Judge Kim, who will take a leave of absence as of the 21st, belongs.

Chief Judge Kim applied for a three-month leave of absence due to health reasons, and Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su approved the leave the day before.

In the regular personnel appointment last February, Chief Judge Kim broke the convention of serving up to three years at the Seoul Central District Court and remained for a fourth year.

In particular, as cases related to the administration were concentrated on Chief Judge Kim, some raised concerns that she might be intentionally delaying the cases.

Meanwhile, Chief Judge Ma is from Cheongju, Chungbuk, and graduated from Daeseong High School in Seoul and the Department of Korean History at Seoul National University. He passed the 39th Judicial Examination in 1997, completed the Judicial Research and Training Institute as the 29th class, and was appointed as a judge at the Busan District Court in 2000.

He served as a judge at the Pyeongtaek Branch of Suwon District Court, Seoul Central District Court, Seoul Southern District Court, and Seoul Northern District Court, and was promoted to chief judge at Chuncheon District Court in 2015. Afterwards, he served as chief judge at Uijeongbu District Court and Seoul Northern District Court, and returned to the Seoul Central District Court as chief judge in February last year.

In July last year, while serving as chief judge of the Criminal Division 11 at Seoul Northern District Court, Chief Judge Ma sentenced Woo Jong-chang, a conservative YouTuber and former Monthly Chosun reporter who was indicted without detention on charges of defaming former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk (violation of the Information and Communications Network Act), to eight months in prison and ordered his immediate detention in court.

Woo was accused of making claims in a YouTube broadcast in March 2018 that "around January of this year, former Minister Cho had a meal near the Blue House with the presiding judge of the first trial of former President Park Geun-hye's state affairs manipulation case."

At that time, Chief Judge Ma pointed out, "The defendant, as a journalist, broadcast false information without even the minimum fact-checking process," and added, "The broadcast content is very serious as it could cause a misunderstanding that the Blue House tried to intervene in (former President) Park's trial."