supreme court
During the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations, Choo Myung-ho, former director of the National Intelligence Service at the National Intelligence Service, was sentenced to two years in prison for being indicted for engaging in illegal surveillance and political manipulation by the National Intelligence Service.
The first division of the Supreme Court (Presiding Judge Oh Kyung-mi) announced on the 1st that it had confirmed the lower court sentenced to two years in prison and two years of suspension for former director Chu, who was handed over to trial on charges of violating the National Intelligence Service Act.
During the Park Geun-hye administration, Choo was accused of illegally inspecting special inspector general Lee Seok-soo and Kim Jin-seon, chairman of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, and reported it to the Blue House senior secretary for civil affairs Woo Byung-woo. There are also charges of involvement in illegally inspecting former Woori Bank CEO Lee Gwang-gu and remittance of NIS special activity expenses to the Blue House (business-related embezzlement), and involvement in making a list of cultural artists excluded from support during the Park Geun-hye administration.
The first trial sentenced him to two years in prison and two years of suspension for being guilty of most of the charges, except for the charges of involvement in making a list of exclusions from support for cultural artists and the charges of inspecting former chairman Kim Jin-sun.
The second trial also found the former chairman Kim Jin-seon guilty of the charge of inspection. The second trial judge said, “It was to report negative content related to the weakness of a specific person,” and said, “It cannot be seen as a normal exercise of authority, and the authority was illegally and unfairly abused.” In addition, it said, “Byung-Woo Woo abused his authority for his personal interests and the defendant’s own public opinion.”
The Supreme Court also upheld this judgment.
Choi Yoon-soo, former second deputy director of the National Intelligence Service, who was also on trial for illegally inspecting special inspector general Lee Seok-soo, was also sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and suspended for one year. However, the effect of the sentence disappeared following 11 days of the final sentence as it was included in the list of New Year’s special pardons executed by President Seok-Yeol Yoon on the 28th of last month.