Medical Student Parents Donate 10 Million Won to Residents on 'Blacklist'

"Let's Raise 5 Billion Won in Donations" Movement Also Underway

On the 23rd, JoongAng Ilbo reported that parents of medical students handed over 10 million won in cash to Jeong Mo, a resigned resident who spread personal information of doctors who did not participate in collective actions.

List of Returning Residents with Faces Covered [Photo by Yonhap News]

Officials from the National Medical Student Parents Union (Jeonuihakyeon) stated, "Legal fees are expensive, and since Jeong is currently resigned, we collected money from each other to cover the legal fees. We raised more than 10 million won, but for now, we delivered 10 million won," adding, "Jeong's family did not want this to be publicly known." They also emphasized, "Our position is that creating a blacklist was wrong, but it is not a matter warranting detention."

Fundraising efforts to support Jeong are also ongoing, centered around the doctors and medical students' community MedisStaff. Doctors have been competing to certify their donation amounts, and it is reported that they idolize the detained Jeong with comments such as "Our hero," "A sinner who has nothing else to do," and "We must set a precedent of being showered with money."

Amid hundreds of thousands of won worth of donation certification posts, Joo Suho, former chairman of the Emergency Response Committee's Public Relations Committee of the Korean Medical Association, also shared Jeong's detention news on social media (SNS), encouraging relay donations by saying, "Now is the time to keep our mouths shut and open our wallets." Comments such as "Protect medical rights" and "Let's raise 5 billion won in donations" were posted under the message.

Jeong is accused of creating a "medical blacklist" containing personal information of doctors who did not participate in the collective actions by residents opposing the government's medical school expansion policy last July, and posting it multiple times on Telegram and the doctors and medical students' community MedisStaff. Initially, Jeong was booked on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act, but the police applied for an arrest warrant on charges of violating the Stalking Punishment Act, believing that Jeong engaged in continuous and repetitive harassment by posting personal information online against the will of the doctors involved. It is also known that the police claimed that victims included in the "blacklist" posted by Jeong were at risk of extreme choices.

On the 20th, Nam Cheon-gyu, the chief judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, held a pre-arrest suspect interrogation (warrant review) for Jeong and issued an arrest warrant. Judge Nam stated the reason for issuing the warrant was "concern over evidence tampering."