SEOUL– The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a guilty verdict for a former presidential chief of staff charged with lying in a document submitted to the National Assembly in connection with the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol.
Kim Ki-choon, chief of staff to then President Park Geun-hye, had been sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, for falsifying the time Park was briefed on the deadly accident in an attempt to fend off criticism the government bungled its response.
Lower courts had acknowledged that Kim had forged Sewol-related documents submitted to the National Assembly, apparently to protect then President Park from being blamed for the government’s botched rescue operation in the accident that claimed more than 300 lives.
The Supreme Court, however, struck down the verdict and sent the case back to the Seoul High Court, saying the documents contained both facts and opinions and that the fact parts conform to the records of the presidential office.
Kim was indicted in March 2018, together with two former heads of Cheong Wa Dae’s National Security Office — Kim Jang-soo and Kim Kwan-jin — on charges of document falsification related to their reports on the ferry sinking to Park.
The two officials have been acquitted of the charges due to lack of evidence.
On April 16, 2014, the 6,800-ton Sewol ferry, carrying 476 passengers en route to the resort island of Jeju, capsized in waters off the southern coast, killing 304 people, mostly high school students on a school trip.
Source: Yonhap News Agency