Court: "Special recruitment appears to be a private favor or compensation by the appointing authority"
Cho Hee-yeon, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent who was prosecuted on charges of unfair special recruitment of dismissed teachers, was sentenced to a suspended prison term in the second trial as well. Under current law, a superintendent loses their position if sentenced to imprisonment without prison labor or higher.
Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, who was sentenced to a suspended prison term in the first trial on suspicion of unfairly specially hiring dismissed teachers, is attending the appellate sentencing hearing held at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 18th. [Image source=Yonhap News]
The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 13 (Presiding Judges Kim Woo-soo, Kim Jin-ha, Lee In-soo) upheld the first trial's judgment sentencing Superintendent Cho to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 2-year suspension for abuse of authority, obstruction of the exercise of rights, and violation of the State Public Officials Act. Former Chief Secretary Han, who was in charge of practical work, was also sentenced to 10 months in prison with a 2-year suspension, as in the first trial.
The court stated, "This special recruitment differs from previous special recruitments in terms of universal consensus and the number of recruits," and added, "Since the timing for hiring retired teachers from the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (Jeon-gyo-jo) was stipulated in the supplementary provisions of the Appointment Decree, it was forcibly pushed forward without gathering opinions or forming consensus."
It continued, "Teachers are career public officials whose status is guaranteed and who are expected to work as lifelong public servants, so the recruitment process must be not only substantively transparent and fair but also appear fair to the general public," and judged, "This special recruitment, which accepted the core demands of Jeon-gyo-jo immediately after winning a third term in an election that involved unification with candidates affiliated with Jeon-gyo-jo, is sufficient to be seen as a private favor or reward by the appointing authority."
Superintendent Cho was prosecuted on charges of abuse of authority for giving improper instructions to officials to specially recruit five dismissed teachers from Jeon-gyo-jo, whose convictions for violating election laws were confirmed between October and December 2018.
He also faces charges of violating the State Public Officials Act for proceeding with the recruitment process disguised as an open competitive examination while having preselected these individuals, or for instructing some examiners to give high scores to specific candidates.
This case was transferred from the police to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), marking the first investigation case since the CIO's establishment. After about four months of investigation, the CIO referred the case to the prosecution with a recommendation for indictment, and the prosecution reached the same conclusion, indicting Superintendent Cho without detention at the end of the same year.
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