Former National Court Administration head Park Byung-dae takes ‘judicial power abuse scandal’ case to Supreme Court of Korea after appealing second-instance ruling

Financial News reported that Park Byung-dae, former head of the National Court Administration, who was indicted over alleged abuse of judicial administrative authority in the so-called judicial power abuse scandal and convicted in the second-instance trial, has appealed the ruling.
According to legal sources on the 4th, Park’s legal team on the previous day filed a notice of appeal with Criminal Division 14-1 of the Seoul High Court, which had handled charges including abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights.
The appellate court had earlier overturned the not-guilty verdict from the first-instance court and sentenced Park to six months in prison, suspended for one year. The panel partially recognized his guilt in the case involving a request for constitutional review of a statute concerning limited unconstitutionality, which the lower court had found not guilty. That case dates back to 2015, when the Seoul Southern District Court asked the Constitutional Court to review whether the judiciary’s interpretation of the Private School Teachers’ Pension Act was unconstitutional, and the National Court Administration intervened to block the request. Park was also charged with pressuring a presiding judge handling an administrative appeal filed that same year by former lawmakers of the now-defunct Unified Progressive Party, urging the judge to review the National Court Administration’s position.
Regarding these two charges, the appellate bench found that former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea Yang Sung-tae and Park had colluded, and it held them guilty of abuse of authority. The court further convicted Park for ordering the preparation of a report suggesting that it would be preferable to revoke ex officio and reissue the decision that had raised a limited unconstitutionality-based constitutional review request. Out of 47 counts, the court found only these two cases to be proven.
The judges stated, "The defendants abused their official authority to interfere in trials and obstruct the proper exercise of judicial power," and criticized that "their crimes undermined judicial independence and gave rise to doubt and distrust about the fairness of trials."
Yang Sung-tae also filed an appeal on February 2, and the case will now be reviewed by the Supreme Court of Korea.

theknight@fnnews.com Reporter Jung Kyung-soo Reporter