It was learned on the 17th that former Blue House senior presidential secretary for personnel affairs Cho Hyun-ok filed a request for a constitutional review referral in the first trial of a case in which she was indicted on suspicion of ordering that former Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Sang-jik be designated as chair of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME). She is asking the court to determine the unconstitutionality of the abuse of authority charge applied to her.
On Sept. 22, Cho submitted a request for a constitutional review referral to the Criminal Division 27 of the Seoul Central District Court (presiding judge: Chief Judge Woo In-seong), which is hearing the case. The gist is that Article 123 of the Criminal Act, which addresses the crime of abuse of authority, is unconstitutional.
A constitutional review referral is when the court asks the Constitutional Court to review whether a law to be applied to a case under trial is unconstitutional. If the court accepts Cho's request and refers the matter for a constitutional review to the Constitutional Court, the trial will be halted until the Constitutional Court issues its decision.
Article 123 of the Criminal Act stipulates that a public official who abuses official authority to make a person perform a duty not imposed by law or obstructs another's exercise of rights shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than five years, suspension of qualifications for not more than 10 years, or a fine of not more than 10 million won.
Cho argues, in essence, that the scope of punishment for abuse of authority is excessively broad. While the crime of abuse of authority can be applied when a superior commits an obvious crime, such as issuing an order that directly infringes on a citizen's life or liberty, she says it is excessive to impose criminal punishment merely because a subordinate judged that an ordinary work-related order was "not a legitimate order." She also argues that the abuse of authority charge is being used indiscriminately whenever administrations change.
In December 2017, Cho allegedly abused her power by designating former Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Sang-jik as chair of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) and ordering personnel officials to support the process by which Lee would be selected; she was indicted without detention in December last year and is standing trial in the first instance. Cho served as senior presidential secretary for personnel affairs in the Blue House Presidential Secretariat from 2017 to 2019 during the Moon Jae-in administration.
In March 2018, former President Moon appointed Lee as chair of the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME). It is known that prosecutors detected suspicions against Cho in the course of investigating allegations of improper interference by Blue House officials and others in Lee's appointment.
Meanwhile, prosecutors suspect that former President Moon's former son-in-law, a person surnamed Seo, who had no experience in the aviation field, was given preferential treatment to be hired in 2018 as an executive managing director at T'way Eastar Jet, which Lee effectively owned, and that in return Lee was appointed as KOSME chair. In connection with this allegation, former President Moon was indicted without detention on bribery charges in April and is facing a separate first-instance trial at the Seoul Central District Court.