Prosecutors Appeal Yang Sungtae "Judicial Corruption" Case, Say Unified Ruling on Abuse of Authority Needed

First-instance acquittal overturned, partial guilty verdict on appeal

The prosecution has decided to seek a Supreme Court ruling in the case of former Chief Justice Yang Sungtae, who was given a suspended prison sentence on appeal after being found guilty in connection with the so-called "judicial corruption" scandal.

The Seoul High Prosecutors' Office announced on the 6th that it had filed an appeal against the appellate ruling in the case involving charges including abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights by Yang Sungtae, Park Byungdae, and Ko Younghan. The prosecution stated, "It is necessary to obtain a unified ruling from the Supreme Court on issues such as the legal interpretation of abuse of authority," adding that it had also "taken into account the fact that related cases are currently being heard by the Supreme Court."

Former Chief Justice Yang Seungtae, who was arrested and indicted in May 2019 on allegations of judicial corruption, is heading to the courtroom. Photo by Kim Hyunmin

Earlier, on January 30, the Criminal Division 14-1 of the Seoul High Court overturned the not-guilty verdict in the first trial for former Chief Justice Yang, who had been indicted on charges including abuse of authority, and sentenced him to six months in prison, suspended for one year. This is the first time in constitutional history that a former Chief Justice has been found guilty in a criminal trial. Former Supreme Court Justice Park Byungdae, who had been acquitted in the first trial, was also sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for one year, while former Supreme Court Justice Ko Younghan was again acquitted, as in the first instance.

Former Chief Justice Yang was indicted on charges that, after taking office in September 2011 for a six-year term, he received reports on and approved, or directly ordered, anti-constitutional schemes from former Deputy Director of the National Court Administration Lim Jongheon and from former Supreme Court Justices Park and Ko, who served as Directors of the National Court Administration.

The prosecution brought 47 counts against former Chief Justice Yang. The court of first instance subdivided these into about 90 separate charges for judgment and then acquitted him on all of them. However, the appellate court found him guilty for, among other things, (1) forcing the Seoul Southern District Court in April 2015 to withdraw a request for a constitutional review of a statute, and (2) exerting influence in November 2015 on the Seoul High Court to overturn the first-instance ruling in a status-confirmation lawsuit filed by former lawmakers of the now-defunct Unified Progressive Party.

Unlike the first-instance judgment, which did not recognize intervention in trials as falling within the "scope of official authority" required to constitute the crime of abuse of authority, the appellate court held that the offense was established because he intervened in specific cases and thereby infringed on judges' authority to adjudicate. However, as in the first trial, the court acquitted him on the remaining charges, including allegations of improper intervention in damages lawsuits filed by victims of Japan's wartime forced labor.

Former Chief Justice Yang and former Supreme Court Justice Park have appealed the ruling.