The panel at the Seoul High Court that will hear the second trial in the Daejang-dong development scandal has been changed to Criminal Division 6.
The Seoul High Court said on the 12th that it reassigned the case to Criminal Division 6 (High Court Judges Choi Eun-jung, Lee Ye-seul, and Jeong Jae-o), the division dedicated to corruption cases, after confirming grounds for reassignment under the criteria.
The previous day, the Seoul High Court assigned to Criminal Division 3 (presiding judge Lee Seung-han) the cases of Yu Dong-gyu, former planning director at Seongnam Development Corporation and a key defendant in the Daejang-dong development scandal, along with private businessmen Nam Uk, an attorney, Jeong Yeong-hak, an accountant, Kim Man-bae, and attorney Jeong Min-yong. Kim is the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, the project operator for the Daejang-dong development, and Nam is the owner of Cheonhwadongin No. 4, a subsidiary of Hwacheon Daeyu.
However, one of the associate judges on that panel requested reassignment under the criteria on reassignment for cases involving attorneys with connections, citing the fact that the judge and Nam, the attorney, were classmates in the 37th class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute.
Under the Seoul High Court's criteria, if a judge's spouse or a relative within the second degree works as an attorney at a law firm and that firm accepts the case, it constitutes grounds for reassignment. If a defendant is a classmate of a member of the panel from the Judicial Research and Training Institute, the case is handled in the same manner as for a judge's spouse or a relative within the second degree.
Criminal Division 6 of the Seoul High Court, which will hear the second trial in the Daejang-dong development scandal, is a panel dedicated to corruption and election cases. Criminal Division 6 previously overturned a first-instance ruling that had handed down a suspended prison sentence in President Lee Jae-myung's Public Official Election Act case and acquitted him.
Criminal Division 6 at the Seoul High Court is a panel in which three High Court judges with similar experience deliberate and reach decisions as equals. With the abolition of the system of reassigning High Court presiding judges (effectively a promotion) and the adoption of a dual-track judiciary, judges assigned exclusively to the High Court have been placed on these panels. They are equivalent in rank to chief judges at district courts.
At the High Court, in addition to panels composed of a High Court presiding judge and associate judges, there are coequal panels consisting only of High Court presiding judges and coequal panels composed solely of High Court judges.