Former Defense Ministry Officials Given Deferred Prison Sentences in First Trial Over ‘False Answers on Pressure to Interfere with Corporal Chae Investigation’

[Financial News] Former Defense Ministry officials who prepared and submitted false response documents to the National Assembly in connection with the death of a Marine in the line of duty received deferred prison sentences in the first trial. This is the judiciary’s first ruling on some of the defendants in the case involving allegations of pressure to interfere with the investigation into the Marine’s line-of-duty death, in which former President Yoon Suk Yeol and former Defense Minister Jongseop Lee, among others, were indicted.
On the afternoon of the 6th, Criminal Division 27 of the Seoul Central District Court, presided over by Judge Woo In-seong, deferred the sentences of Yoo, the former director-general for planning and management at the Ministry of National Defense, and Lee, formerly in charge of overall organizational affairs at the ministry’s Planning and Management Office, who were indicted on charges of fabricating public electronic records and using fabricated public electronic records. The deferred prison terms were six months for Yoo and four months for Lee, respectively.
A sentence deferment is a system under which sentencing is postponed for a set period when a defendant’s culpability is relatively minor; if two years pass from the date of the deferment, the defendant is deemed to be exempt from prosecution.
They were sent to trial on charges of preparing and submitting false written responses to inquiries from the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee and others at the time allegations of pressure to interfere with the investigation into Corporal Chae’s line-of-duty death were spreading. Although the Ministry of National Defense had internally considered plans to reorganize military police, including the Marine Corps Criminal Investigation Division, they entered false responses to the National Assembly—stating, in effect, that no reduction in military police or organizational restructuring had been considered—into the government information system and submitted them. The false responses were uncovered in the special counsel’s investigation.
The court found the defendants guilty of fabricating public electronic records. It ruled, “Despite having internally considered a plan to reorganize the military police, responding to the National Assembly that no such consideration had taken place constitutes a falsehood contrary to objective fact.” The court also determined that the electronic files submitted to the National Assembly constituted public electronic records and that the defendants intended to impede the handling of the National Assembly’s affairs.
However, the court excluded some of the charges from the allegations. Given that the plan to reduce military police had already been scrapped internally by the time the response was sent to the National Assembly, the court found that the portion of the response stating, in effect, that no materials related to the reduction existed could not be conclusively deemed false.
At the final hearing last May, the Special Prosecutor Team on the Death of Marine Corporal Chae had sought a two-year prison term for Yoo, the former director-general, and six months in prison, suspended for one year, for Lee, the former official in charge, saying they had “systematically concealed the allegations of pressure to interfere with the investigation and seriously obstructed the National Assembly’s legitimate legislative activities.”
In explaining the sentencing, the court said, “We took into comprehensive consideration the fact that the defendants prepared the response materials in accordance with orders from their superiors, as well as fairness among those involved.” Considering that they had followed their superiors’ instructions as working-level officials and their records of public service, the court deferred their sentences instead of imposing prison terms or suspended sentences.
This ruling is a partial separate judgment for working-level officials whose arguments concluded first in the main trial over alleged pressure to interfere with the investigation, in which 12 people, including former President Yoon and former Minister Lee, were indicted together. With the court formally recognizing the illegality of the false reports to the National Assembly, the ruling is expected to affect the ongoing consideration by the same panel of abuse-of-authority and obstruction-of-rights charges against the key command figures, including former President Yoon and former Minister Lee.
[email protected] Lee Chang-hoon Reporter