The Constitutional Court will resume the impeachment trial of Joonseong Son, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Daegu High Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor), who was acquitted after being indicted over the so-called "Prosecution Induced Complaint" allegations, after a year-long suspension.
Joonseong Son, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Daegu High Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor). Yonhap News
On the 25th, the Constitutional Court announced that it would hold the second preparatory hearing for Son's impeachment trial at 3 p.m. on the 29th in the Constitutional Court's small courtroom. Son was indicted on charges of exchanging images of two complaint documents and full-name court rulings concerning pro-government figures via Telegram messenger with Woong Kim, then a candidate for the United Future Party (the predecessor of the People Power Party), in April 2020, just before the general election, when Son was serving as Director of Investigation Information Policy at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. In response, the National Assembly, led by the Democratic Party of Korea, passed an impeachment motion against Son in December 2023.
The Constitutional Court held the first preparatory hearing in March last year, but accepted Son's request to suspend the impeachment proceedings due to the ongoing criminal trial and halted the review in April of the same year. Article 51 of the Constitutional Court Act stipulates that if a criminal case is underway for the same reason as the impeachment petition, the bench may, at its discretion, suspend the impeachment proceedings.
In the first trial, the court found Son guilty of leaking official secrets and criminal justice information by delivering a full-name court ruling to Representative 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 delivering a complaint draft did not pose a sufficient risk of influencing the election outcome.
In the second trial, the court acquitted Son of all charges, stating that it was not proven that Son had sent the complaint documents and court rulings to former Representative Kim. At that time, the court rejected the key claim by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials that the messages had been relayed in the order of "Son to former Representative Kim to whistleblower Seongeun Cho."
On the 24th, the Supreme Court also dismissed the Corruption Investigation Office's appeal, confirming the acquittal on the grounds that there was no issue with the lower court's decision.
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