A professor at Seoul National University was dismissed in 2019 amid allegations of sexual assault against a student but was acquitted in a criminal trial in 2023. The professor filed a lawsuit to cancel the dismissal, but the Supreme Court ruled that the dismissal was lawful. This implies that the professor's actions, apart from the sexual assault, such as undue reprimands and interference in students' private lives, could also be considered grounds for dismissal.
On the 17th, the Supreme Court's third division (presiding Justice Roh Kyung-phil) stated that it confirmed the decision of the second trial, ruling against A in the appeal of the dismissal cancellation request filed against the Teacher Appeal Review Committee under the Ministry of Education.
A is the subject of the controversial 'Seoul National University Professor A Case' from 2019. This incident began when A's student B revealed in 2019 that she was sexually assaulted by A during overseas trips from 2015 to 2017. After an internal investigation, Seoul National University dismissed A in August 2019. B filed a complaint against A with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on charges of forcible molestation.
However, in the criminal trial, A was found not guilty in both the first and second trials, and the Supreme Court also acquitted A. The court stated, 'The victim's testimony was inconsistent, and A's act of forcible molestation cannot be reasonably proven solely based on B's testimony.'
Separately from the criminal trial, the Seoul Administrative Court, in the first trial of A's 'dismissal cancellation lawsuit', ruled in favor of A. At that time, A was acquitted in the first and second criminal trials, and the court determined that even if sexual assault had occurred, the misconduct was not severe enough to warrant dismissal.
However, the second trial upheld that A's dismissal was justified. It acknowledged the grounds for A's disciplinary action by Seoul National University. Additionally, the second trial did not accept A's claim that 'Seoul National University disciplined him based on illegally obtained evidence.' The Human Rights Center, which investigates incidents at Seoul National University, found that colleague Professor C had unlawfully accessed A's portal account to obtain email materials and used this to recommend disciplinary action.
The second trial court stated, 'Just because evidence is obtained unlawfully in a criminal trial does not automatically negate its evidential value in an administrative trial, so we cannot view the Human Rights Center's investigation as having procedural flaws or the ruling as unlawful.' The Supreme Court also deemed the second trial's judgment to be correct.