Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Superintendent of Education Shin Kyung-ho, who was indicted on charges of illegal electioneering and taking bribes, was sentenced on the 23rd in the first trial to a prison term that voids the election.
The Criminal Division 2 of the Chuncheon District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Seong-rae) at the sentencing hearing for Shin's case on violating the Local Education Autonomy Act and taking bribes in advance, ruled the charge of violating the Local Education Autonomy Act extinct by reason of amnesty, found only part of the advance bribery charge guilty, and sentenced Shin to 10 months in prison, suspended for 2 years.
Shin was indicted in Jun. 2023 on charges that during the "June 1 nationwide local elections" in 2022, Shin set up an illegal private organization to conduct electioneering (violation of the Local Education Autonomy Act) and took money in return for promising to appoint people to positions in the education office or allow them to participate in government-funded projects if elected superintendent (advance bribery).
Shin, along with the education office's former Spokesperson, a person surnamed Lee, is accused of recruiting an election organization from Jul. 2021 to May 2022, running a group chat room for electioneering, and holding workshops, thereby forming a private organization for campaign activities.
Additional charges included taking 10 million won from Lee in Nov. 2021 in return for appointing Lee as Spokesperson of the Gangwon Office of Education upon election, and four instances of jointly receiving money and valuables with Lee, for a total of five bribery counts.
Under the Local Education Autonomy Act, which applies the Public Official Election Act mutatis mutandis, if a fine of 1 million won or more is imposed and the sentence is finalized, the election is void, the superintendent's post is lost, and disadvantages such as restrictions on the right to be elected follow.
Shin was acquitted of the charge of violating the Local Education Autonomy Act, but under the rule that "an elected public official loses the post if a sentence of imprisonment or heavier is finalized in an ordinary criminal case," if the sentence handed down today is finalized, Shin will lose the superintendent's post.