Members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (Shincheonji), who were handed over to trial for obstructing the government’s COVID-19 quarantine work by submitting a list excluding some members, were acquitted.
The first division of the Supreme Court (Chief Justice Roh Tae-ak) announced on the 15th that it had confirmed the lower court’s verdict of acquittal in the appeal of eight people, including Mr.
In February 2020, Mr. A and others submitted to the quarantine authorities a list of omissions of some church members and were sent to trial on charges of obstructing COVID-19 quarantine work.
At that time, the 31st confirmed case in Korea occurred at the Shincheonji Daegu Church, and the number of confirmed cases surged mainly among worshipers and contacts of the church. In response, the quarantine authorities demanded that the head of a branch of Shincheonji and Mr. A, a member of the Daegu Church, submit a list of members of the Shincheonji Daegu Church for an epidemiological investigation.
However, A and others were found to have submitted a list of only 9,293 out of 9,785 church members, excluding 492, and were charged with obstructing the epidemiological investigation and execution of duties by the quarantine authorities.
The first and second trial did not admit all the charges against Mr.
The prosecution found that Mr. A and others had submitted false data during the epidemiological investigation and applied the charge of violating Article 18 (3) of the Infectious Disease Prevention Act.
However, the first and second trials judged that the request to submit the membership list did not fall under the Epidemiological Investigation Act under the Infectious Disease Prevention Act.
An epidemiological investigation is to identify information related to the identification of the cause of an infectious disease, such as the patient’s personal information, the date and place of the outbreak, etc. The purpose of the epidemiological investigation is to ask for a complete list of church members regardless of whether they are infected or not.
In other words, the explanation of the first and second trials was that, unless it was an epidemiological investigation to ask for the entire membership list, it could not be considered that Mr. A had interfered with the epidemiological investigation. He also said that since he did not deceive the quarantine authorities, he could not be punished even for the charge of obstructing the execution of official duties.
Meanwhile, Shincheonji president Lee Man-hee was also handed over to trial on the same charges, but was acquitted on the 12th.
After President Lee and Shincheonji Daegu Church members were brought to trial, a law to punish those who falsely submitted general data, not for epidemiological investigations, was later prepared.
Article 79-2 3 of the Infectious Disease Prevention Act, newly established in September 2020, is punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year or a fine of not more than 20 million won if you do not comply with or provide false information when you request not only an epidemiological investigation but also personal information about a person suspected of an infectious disease, etc. stipulate that
However, before the revised law was enacted, Chairman Lee and Shincheonji Daegu Church members were indicted, and they were acquitted in the sense that retroactive punishment was impossible.
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