Charges Included Leaking Official Secrets and Violating the Public Official Election Act
One-Year Prison Sentence in First Trial, Acquittal in Second
Constitutional Court Impeachment Trial Expected to Resume
Prosecutor Son Junseong, who was put on trial over the so-called 'Prosecution Complaint Orchestration' allegations, has been acquitted with the verdict now finalized.
On April 24, the First Division of the Supreme Court (Presiding Justice Noh Kyungpil) dismissed the prosecution's appeal against Son, who had been indicted on charges including violation of the Public Official Election Act and disclosure of official secrets, thereby upholding the not-guilty verdict delivered by the appellate court.
Son was indicted for allegedly exchanging, via Telegram messenger, images of two draft complaints and verdicts containing real names regarding pro-government figures with Kim Woong, then a candidate for the United Future Party (predecessor to the People Power Party), in April 2020, just before the general election, while serving as the Director of Investigation Information Policy at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.
The core of the suspicion was that the prosecution had allegedly encouraged the United Future Party to file complaints against Choi Kangwook, then an Open Democratic Party proportional representative candidate, Hwang Heeseok, then a senior party official, and Rhyu Si-min, then chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, in order to generate negative public opinion against the then-ruling party.
In January last year, the court of first instance found Son guilty of leaking official secrets and criminal justice information by delivering the verdict containing real names to Kim, and sentenced him to one year in prison. However, the court acquitted him of violating the Public Official Election Act, stating that merely drafting and sending the complaint did not pose a sufficient risk of influencing the election outcome.
In December last year, the appellate court found Son not guilty of all charges, stating, "It has not been proven that Son sent the complaints and verdicts to former lawmaker Kim." The court also did not accept the argument made by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials, which claimed that the messages were delivered in the sequence 'Son Junseong → Kim Woong → whistleblower Cho Seongeun,' a key point in the case.
With the Supreme Court's ruling on this day, the Constitutional Court's impeachment trial is also expected to resume soon. The impeachment proceedings against Son, initiated in December last year, have been suspended due to the pending criminal trial.
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