[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The prosecution has appealed the first trial court's acquittal ruling on the charge of attempted coercion against reporter Baek from the same company as former Channel A reporter Lee Dong-jae.
On the 21st, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office stated, "After analyzing the acquittal ruling on the charge of attempted coercion, reviewing the judgment documents, and comprehensively examining the investigation team's opinions, it was judged that it is appropriate to receive the appellate court's judgment on the disputed legal principles and facts, so an appeal was filed today."
Reporters Lee and Baek were each brought to trial in August last year, Lee in custody and Baek out of custody, on charges of threatening former Value Invest Korea (VIK) CEO Lee Cheol, who was imprisoned in February-March last year, to coerce him into providing information on corruption involving ruling party figures such as Yoo Si-min, chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation.
However, on the 16th, Judge Hong Chang-woo of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 1 ruled, "The prosecution's facts in this case correspond to a lack of proof of criminal facts," and acquitted both individuals.
The court judged that it was difficult to see that the letters sent by former reporter Lee to former CEO Lee or the whistleblower Ji, who acted as the former CEO's proxy in this case, constituted a notification of harm to the former CEO.
The court concluded that Lee did not threaten by saying, "If you do not cooperate with me, I will move the prosecution to conduct a strong investigation against former CEO Lee Cheol," but rather said, "If you do not cooperate with me, the prosecution currently investigating may expand the investigation to your family," or "If you cooperate with me, there is a possibility of leniency through a request to the prosecution," so it cannot be seen as a notification of harm intending to exert influence on the prosecution to cause disadvantage.
Reason for the first trial acquittal Former Prosecutor General Han Dong-hoon, another suspect in this case, stated in a position paper, "For the past year and a half, the ruling power, some prosecutors, pro-government media, pro-government organizations, and pro-government intellectuals have all been mobilized in a ghost-like false agitation, conspiracy, and illegal abuse of public authority called 'prosecutor-media collusion,' which has thoroughly failed," and added, "I believe it was retaliation against investigations into power corruption such as the Cho Kuk investigation."
He also said, "Now is the time to hold those responsible for that false agitation, conspiracy, and illegal mobilization of public authority," and added, "We must hold accountable Choo Mi-ae, Choi Kang-wook, Hwang Hee-seok, MBC, the so-called 'Whistleblower X,' Han Sang-hyuk, the Citizens' Coalition for Democratic Media, Yoo Si-min, some KBS officials, Lee Sung-yoon, Lee Jung-hyun, Shin Sung-sik, and some prosecutors. Necessary measures will be taken."
On the other hand, former Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae, who excluded former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl's command through investigation supervision of this case and also filed a disciplinary request against Yoon, wrote on her Facebook, "The Channel A prosecutor-media collusion case was collusion-like both in obstructing the investigation and in the trial process," and stated, "Since it was the result of prosecutor-media collusion from beginning to end, reform has become more urgent."
She also said, "The pathetic behavior where the truth could not win due to the prosecution's perfect obstruction of investigation and trial was predicted from the start," and added, "Now the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials must actively take charge of the investigation. We will not overlook this situation where judicial justice has disappeared."
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