Shin Jong-o, a Seoul High Court judge who handled the appeals trial in cases including first lady Kim Keon-hee's Deutsch Motors stock manipulation allegations, was found dead early on the 6th near the Seoul High Court building.
According to the legal community and others, at about 12:20 a.m. that day, the judge's family reported to police that they could not reach Shin.
Police and firefighters found Shin at the Seoul High Court building at about 1 a.m. that day and transported the judge to a hospital. A note reportedly was also found at the scene.
Police are investigating the exact cause of death. No criminal suspicion was found. It is also known that the note did not contain content from which to infer the background of the death.
The Seoul High Court Criminal Division 15-2, over which Shin presided, on the 28th sentenced Kim to four years in prison in the second trial over the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation case and the Unification Church bribery allegations. As part of the stock manipulation charges that had been found not guilty at the first trial were overturned to guilty, the sentence increased from the first trial's one year and eight months in prison.