Prosecution Seeks 6-Year Prison Sentence for Former Ulsan Mayor Song Cheol-ho in 'Election Interference' Case, Citing "Abuse of Police Power"

On the 11th, the prosecution demanded a 6-year prison sentence for Song Cheol-ho, former mayor of Ulsan, who was brought to trial on charges of Blue House-directed investigations and election interference. It has been about 3 years and 7 months since the case was brought to trial, and the first trial verdict is expected as early as the end of this year or early next year.

Ulsan Mayor Song Cheol-ho is attending the trial on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act in the case of alleged election interference and directed investigation by the Blue House in the Ulsan mayoral election, held on the 14th at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

On the day, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 21-3 (Presiding Judges Kim Mi-kyung, Heo Kyung-moo, Kim Jeong-gon) requested the court to sentence former Mayor Song, who was indicted on charges including violation of the Public Official Election Act, to 6 years in prison, stating, "He climbed the distorted stairs of public opinion to enter public office, showing a hypocritical appearance that only fulfilled personal greed." For Hwang Un-ha, a member of the Democratic Party and former chief of the Ulsan Police Agency during the election, the prosecution separately demanded 4 years in prison for violation of the Public Official Election Act and 1 year in prison plus 1 year disqualification for abuse of authority and obstruction of official duties, according to the separate sentencing provisions of the Public Official Election Act. For Han Byung-do, a member of the same party and former Blue House Senior Secretary for Political Affairs, and Park Hyung-cheol, former Anti-Corruption Secretary, the prosecution demanded 1 year and 6 months in prison each.

The prosecution stated, "This was an unprecedented government authority election that undermined the fairness of the election by abusing the police authority to collect corruption intelligence," and "Former Mayor Song led the crime and requested an investigation from Representative Hwang, ultimately benefiting from an unfair election victory." "Despite greatly damaging the constitutional values of election system fairness and political neutrality of public officials beyond mere legal violations, former Mayor Song shows no sense of guilt at all," they said. Regarding Representative Hwang, they pointed out, "As a high-ranking police officer required to maintain political neutrality, he abused investigative power for political greed and intervened in the election, resulting in becoming a member of the National Assembly," and "Contrary to the propositions he presented during the adjustment of investigative authority between the prosecution and police, he exercised investigative authority in a biased manner according to a predetermined conclusion."

On the same day, the prosecution demanded a 3-year prison sentence for Baek Won-woo, former Blue House Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs, who was also indicted. For Song Byung-gi, former Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs of Ulsan City, the prosecution demanded 2 years and 6 months in prison for violation of the Public Official Election Act and 1 year in prison for obstruction of official duties by deception. For Jang Hwan-seok, former Senior Administrative Officer of the Balanced Development Secretariat, and Moon Mo, former Administrative Officer of the Civil Affairs Secretariat, the prosecution demanded 1 year in prison each.

The prosecution believes that ahead of the 2018 local elections, the Blue House committed various illegal and illicit acts, including ordering the police to conduct a Blue House-directed investigation to help former Mayor Song win and to defeat Kim Ki-hyun, then mayor (currently leader of the People Power Party). They also view that internal information from the central or local government was illegally used in the process of establishing former Mayor Song’s election pledges. Former Mayor Song is known as a close friend of former President Moon Jae-in for 30 years.