Kim Seon-gyu, acting head of the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office, who was prosecuted for leaking investigation records he wrote while working as a prosecutor, was sentenced to a fine in the second trial.
The Seoul Central District Court Criminal Appeal Division 9 (Presiding Judge Lee Seong-bok) overturned the original verdict that acquitted Kim, who was tried for violating the Personal Information Protection Act, and sentenced him to a fine of 20 million won on the 6th. Lawyer A, who was indicted along with Kim, was acquitted as in the first trial.
Kim was indicted in April 2020 on charges of handing over investigation records, including a detention warrant opinion written during an investigation of Pastor B on fraud charges while working at the Jeonju District Prosecutors' Office in 2014, to Lawyer A after retiring the following year.
The first trial acquitted him, stating that "it cannot be ruled out that a copy of the opinion was obtained through other means," because the victim's testimony regarding how the opinion letter was obtained kept changing during the investigation and trial process.
However, the second trial recognized guilt, stating, "The opinion letter attached by the victim is acknowledged to be an accurate transcription of the final version of the opinion letter written by Kim."
Kim was appointed as a senior prosecutor at the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office in September 2022. He is currently the head of Investigation Division 1 and is acting as the head of the office, which is currently vacant.
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