'No Guilty Verdict Confirmed for Busan Mayor Park Hyung-jun in 4 Major Rivers Temple False Statement Case'

Park Hyung-jun, the mayor of Busan, who was indicted on charges of disseminating false information related to the Lee Myung-bak administration's '4 Major Rivers National Intelligence Service civilian surveillance' allegations, was acquitted.

Park Hyung-jun, Mayor of Busan / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

The Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Cho Jae-yeon) on the 18th upheld the lower court's verdict of not guilty against Mayor Park, who was accused of violating the Public Official Election Act.

Mayor Park was prosecuted for allegedly making false statements 12 times during media interviews regarding the 4 Major Rivers civilian surveillance allegations raised during the 2021 Busan mayoral by-election, claiming "I never gave such orders." He was suspected of being a key figure who led the surveillance while serving as the Special Social Advisor and Senior Secretary for Political Affairs at the Blue House during the Lee Myung-bak administration.

Both the first and second trials acquitted him, stating that it was difficult to acknowledge, based solely on the evidence submitted by the prosecution, that Mayor Park was involved in reports prepared by the National Intelligence Service concerning groups opposing the 4 Major Rivers project. The second trial court judged, "It is possible that the relevant evidence was independently requested by secretaries or administrative officers belonging to the Blue House Secretary's Office out of necessity for their duties without Mayor Park's instruction or involvement, and it cannot be ruled out that Mayor Park did not see the NIS report documents."