Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education loses his position after Supreme Court confirms original ruling

Jung Dae-yeon, Kim Hye-ri 2024. 8. 30. 17:29
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Cho Hee-yeon, the superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, speaks to reporters in front of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on August 29. Reporter Cho Tae-hyung

The Supreme Court confirmed the original ruling that sentenced Cho Hee-yeon, the Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, to one year and six months in prison and two years of probation on appeal. Cho was accused of improperly ordering the special recruitment of dismissed teachers who belong to the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU).

Cho, who started his first term in 2014 and had about two years left in his third term, immediately lost his position as superintendent under the Education Autonomy Act and the Public Official Election Act, which requires him to resign if he is sentenced to imprisonment.

The case was the “No. 1 case” of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which was established in January 2021. After a four-month investigation starting in April of the same year, the CIO requested the prosecution to file charges against Cho, alleging that he abused his personnel powers to appoint five dismissed teachers from the KTU in 2018 through a special recruitment process that was disguised as an open competitive examination. The prosecution indicted Cho because the CIO had only the right to investigate as for the superintendent of education.

The first trial court in January last year and the second trial court in January this year found Cho guilty of the charge. Cho claimed that he “did not improperly intervene in the hiring process,” but it was not accepted in all of the first, second, and third trials. Due to Cho’s loss of position, a by-election for the superintendent of education of Seoul will be held on October 16.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.

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