[Breaking] Supreme Court Overturns and Remands 2nd Trial of Cheonan Mayor Park Sang-don’s ‘Suspended Prison Sentence’... Some Charges Acquitted

Sangdon Park, Mayor of Cheonan.

The Supreme Court overturned the second trial ruling that sentenced Park Sang-don, the mayor of Cheonan, to lose his mayoral position on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act.

On the 12th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Seo Kyung-hwan) quashed the original ruling that sentenced Mayor Park to one year in prison with a two-year probation in the appeal trial for charges of violating the Public Official Election Act, and remanded the case to the Daejeon High Court.

The Supreme Court judged that it was difficult to recognize the implied intent in Mayor Park’s 'publication of false facts for election purposes' charge, which the second trial court had found guilty, differently from the second trial court.

The charge for which the Supreme Court denied intent relates to the Cheonan mayoral election held on June 1, 2022, where Mayor Park was accused of publishing false facts about his achievements by citing employment and unemployment statistics of Cheonan City in promotional materials and booklet-type election bulletins for preliminary candidates, while omitting the criterion of 'metropolitan cities with a population of over 500,000.'

The court stated, "For implied intent to be recognized, the defendant must have been aware that the metropolitan city criterion was omitted in the promotional and election materials. If the defendant was unaware, then there is no recognition of the possibility of the occurrence of the criminal fact itself, so implied intent cannot be acknowledged."

As the Supreme Court overturned some of Mayor Park’s charges on the grounds of innocence, the sentence previously handed down in the second trial is expected to be reduced in the retrial following the remand.