The Supreme Court (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling acquitting a senior judge of bribery and related charges tied to receiving counterfeit golf clubs.
According to legal sources on January 8, the Supreme Court’s third division, led by Justice Lee Heung-gu, dismissed the prosecution’s appeal, confirming the not-guilty verdict for Judge A, 56, who had been charged with accepting bribes and violating information network laws.
Case Details
The charges stemmed from allegations that Judge A accepted a set of counterfeit golf clubs worth 520,000 won and a fruit box valued at 260,000 won in February 2019 from a longtime acquaintance, B, a retail businessman.
Prosecutors argued that these items were offered in exchange for assistance with B’s legal troubles, including accessing information about his fraud case through the court’s case search system.
However, the investigation revealed that the golf clubs, initially believed to be luxury items worth millions of won, were determined to be fake. Additionally, the court found no evidence that Judge A influenced or contacted judges handling B’s cases.
Court Rulings
The trial court ruled that while there were suspicions of inappropriate conduct, the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the gifts were bribes tied to an illicit request. It also noted that there were no laws explicitly prohibiting personal use of the court’s case search system for such purposes.
The appellate court dismissed additional charges related to unauthorized access to judicial information and ruled some allegations void due to the statute of limitations.
Ethics Violation Penalty
Although cleared of criminal charges, Judge A faced disciplinary action in 2021. The Supreme Court’s Judicial Disciplinary Committee imposed a three-month salary reduction and an additional fine of approximately 1 million won for violating the duty of maintaining judicial integrity.
This case highlights the complexities of interpreting ethical and legal boundaries in South Korea’s judicial system while reaffirming the need for clear regulations on the use of court resources.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
