Former National Intelligence Service Director Nam Jae-joon (Photo by Yonhap News)
[Asia Economy Reporter Bae Kyunghwan] The acquittal of former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Nam Jae-joon, who was tried on charges of illegally collecting personal information related to former Prosecutor General Chae Dong-wook's extramarital child, has been finalized. Although the NIS deputy director, intelligence officers, and employees of the Blue House and Seocho District Office involved in the information leak were found guilty, no evidence of Nam's involvement was revealed.
According to the legal community on the 16th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Jo Jae-yeon) upheld the lower court's acquittal verdict in the appeal trial of former Director Nam, who was indicted for violating the Personal Information Protection Act. Seo Cheon-ho, former NIS 2nd Deputy Director, who was also tried together, had his original sentence of one year imprisonment with two years probation confirmed, and Mun Jeong-wook, former Director of the National Interest Intelligence Bureau, who was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment with two years probation in the second trial, did not appeal from either the prosecution or the defendant.
In June 2013, former Director Nam and others were indicted on charges of conspiring to illegally verify school records and other documents after becoming aware of intelligence about former Prosecutor General Chae's extramarital child. It was investigated that an internal NIS report stated that the child's school record included "father's name as Chae Dong-wook and occupation listed as scientist."
However, the first and second trial courts found it difficult to acknowledge that former Director Nam conspired with former Deputy Seo and others, and judged that it was hard to see that he implicitly approved the verification of the extramarital child intelligence. The first trial court stated, "It is difficult to recognize an explicit conspiracy relationship," and added, "This intelligence was collected by chance, and if there was an intention to obstruct the investigation, intelligence on Chae and surrounding individuals would have been collected extensively, but there is no such evidence."
However, former Deputy Seo and former Director Mun were found guilty. The court said, "Given that they abused the status and authority of the NIS to commit the crime, it is necessary to impose correspondingly severe responsibility," sentencing them to one year imprisonment with two years probation and ten months imprisonment with two years probation, respectively.
The second trial also upheld the first trial's judgment regarding these individuals. However, Song Mo, an NIS intelligence officer indicted for violating the Personal Information Protection Act, was sentenced to eight months imprisonment with two years probation in the first trial, but this was reduced to a fine of 7 million won in the second trial, and he was separately fined 5 million won for perjury.
Additionally, Jo Oh-young, former Blue House administrative officer, who was sentenced to six months imprisonment with one year probation for perjury in the first trial, was acquitted of perjury charges but fined 7 million won for violating the Personal Information Protection Act. Kim Mo, former team leader at Seocho District Office who accessed information about the extramarital child, was acquitted of perjury charges in the first trial but found guilty in the second trial, increasing the fine from 1 million won to 7 million won.
The Supreme Court found no legal issues with these lower court rulings and confirmed them as is.
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