Court acquits ex-top justice of all charges in power abuse scandal

Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae. (The Korea Herald/Lee Sang-sub)

The Seoul Central District Court on Friday acquitted former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae of all 47 charges related to his alleged abuse of judiciary power, including allegations that he deliberately delayed a ruling on Japan’s forced labor victims for then-President Park Geun-hye, who had sought to stabilize ties with the country.

Yang, who headed the top court from 2011 to 2017, faced multiple allegations of abusing his judiciary power.

After 1,810 days since the prosecution's indictment of Yang, the first-instance verdict was finally delivered, ending nearly 4 years and 11 months of court proceedings.

The court also said that it found no evidence of the former top justice interacting with Park’s office concerning the trial of Won Sei-hoon, the former state spy agency chief who was behind bars for using National Intelligence Service funds to interfere in the 2012 presidential election by running teams that posted politically biased comments online.

Yang was also accused of using or seeking to use trials as bargaining chips to win the political backing of Park for establishing a separate court of appeals -- a pet project of his which never materialized.

The court said that while some of Yang's subordinates could potentially be guilty of abuse of power, the prosecution's evidence was deemed insufficient to establish their culpability.

Prosecutors had demanded a seven-year prison term for Yang.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, responsible for the indictment and overseeing the public prosecution process, released a statement following the verdict.

"We intend to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the factual findings and legal assessments made in the first-instance decision before deciding on whether to pursue an appeal."

The retired veteran justice had allegedly pressed his officials at the National Court Administration -- the top court’s governing body -- to come up with plans to interfere in trials whose rulings had potentially high political significance for the ousted former president.

The massive power abuse scandal was first raised in March 2017, as the NCA was suspected of conducting secret inspections into judges who were considered critical of Yang’s office.

The case led Yang to be the first chief justice ever to have been arrested as a criminal suspect, although he had flatly denied the string of allegations against him, safeguarding the court system and officials.

By Park Jun-hee(junheee@heraldcorp.com)