Dr. Yang Seung-oh Acquitted on Appeal in Case Over Alleged Draft-Dodging by Late Mayor Park Won-soon’s Son, Overturned After 10 Years

Dr. Yang Seung-oh, who had been charged with falsely raising allegations of draft-dodging by Park Ju-shin, a professor at Korea University (KU) and son of the late former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, has been acquitted on appeal.
On the 4th, Criminal Division 6-3 of the Seoul High Court (Judges Lee Ye-seul, Choi Eun-jung, and Jae-Oh Jeong) found Dr. Yang not guilty of the offense of spreading false information under the Public Official Election Act and other related charges. The lower court had previously imposed a fine on him.
The appellate court held that the precise meaning of the allegations raised at the time had not been sufficiently specified. It stated, "He cannot be held liable for defaming a candidate by spreading false information," and concluded that "the criminal facts have not been proven."
The court also pointed to the context in which the allegations were made and the fact that they surfaced just days before the local elections. It explained that there were "time and practical limits to verifying whether the allegations were true or false."
Professor Park received a Grade 2 active-duty fitness rating in 2004 and enlisted in the Air Force in August 2011. However, he complained of pain in his right thigh and was sent home from the training camp shortly after enlistment. He then submitted to the Military Manpower Administration (MMA) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of his lower back and X-ray images taken at a hospital, and in December of the same year he was reclassified as Grade 4 due to a herniated disc and served as a public service worker.
In June 2014, ahead of the local elections, Dr. Yang and others alleged that "Professor Park had swapped out his MRI images to obtain a public service worker classification." They were indicted that same year on charges including spreading false information and defaming a candidate, and in 2016 the trial court sentenced them to fines.
The appeal proceedings stretched on for about 10 years. The hearings were reportedly delayed because Professor Park, who had been called as a witness, failed to appear for an extended period, citing stays abroad.
scottchoi15@fnnews.com Choi Eun-sol Reporter