An appellate court ruled that a tablet PC submitted to the special counsel team led by Park Young-soo during the Park Geun-hye administration's influence-peddling probe must be returned to Choi Seo-won (formerly Choi Soon-sil).
The Seoul Central District Court Civil Appeals Division 5-1 (Presiding Judges So Byung-jin, Kim Yong-jung, and Kim Ji-sun) on the 19th upheld a plaintiff victory, as in the first trial, in the second-instance case in which Choi sued the state to deliver movable property.
The tablet PC in question was voluntarily submitted to the Park Young-soo special counsel team in Jan. 2017 by Choi's niece, Jang Si-ho, who, at Choi Seo-won's request in Oct. 2016, took it out along with cash, stocks, and various documents from a home safe. It is different from the tablet PC obtained and reported by JTBC.
Choi said the tablet PC was not hers but filed a return suit, saying, "I was packaged by the media as if it were mine and even went to prison, so I will check whether it is really mine." The point is to verify after getting the tablet PC back whether Choi actually used it, to prove the special counsel fabricated evidence.
In July 2023, the first-instance court ruled that Choi directly purchased and used the tablet PC and that the state must return it to Choi. The bench at the time said, "The plaintiff argues that she is not the owner of this tablet PC, but that is merely denying unfavorable evidence as an exercise of the right to defense guaranteed by the Constitution and cannot negate civil ownership itself."
There are two tablet PCs related to the influence-peddling case that Choi demanded be returned, including the one at issue in this trial. The other is the so-called "JTBC tablet PC," which a JTBC reporter voluntarily submitted to investigators during the probe and was used as evidence at trial. Choi also filed a suit to have this JTBC tablet PC returned, and she won on appeal after winning at first instance.
In Dec. 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed the state's appeal without a hearing, finalizing the ruling, and in Jan. the following year, Choi received the tablet PC from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office through her daughter, Chung Yoo-ra.