Moss Tan (Korean name Dan Hyun-myeong), a professor at Liberty University in the United States who is accused of defaming President Lee Jae-myung, filed another challenge after his motion to recuse the panel in his lawsuit to cancel his travel ban was dismissed.
According to legal sources on the 24th, Tan's side filed an immediate appeal the previous day with the Administrative Division 5 of the Seoul Administrative Court (Presiding Judge Lee Jeong-won). Earlier, Administrative Division 5 dismissed Tan's motion to recuse Administrative Single-Judge Division 1's Presiding Judge Wi Ji-hyun. An immediate appeal is a procedure to contest a court's decision or order.
On the 4th, Administrative Single-Judge Division 1 dismissed Tan's request for an injunction to halt the Ministry of Justice's travel ban. Tan's side filed a recusal motion, saying that if the same division that dismissed the injunction also hears the main suit, they cannot expect a fair trial.
In response, Administrative Single-Judge Division 5 said the previous day that even if the timing or outcome of the decision (dismissing the request for an injunction against the travel ban) differed from Tan's expectations, that does not mean the judge would conduct an unfair trial in the main case, and it dismissed the recusal motion.
Earlier, Tan's side also filed an immediate appeal when the decision dismissing the injunction against the travel ban was issued.
Tan served as ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice at the U.S. State Department during the first Trump administration. He raised conspiracy theories including "China meddled in Korea's fraudulent election" and "President Lee Jae-myung was sent to a juvenile detention center when young."
Police booked Tan last July on charges of defaming the president. When Tan entered Korea on the 28th, saying he would monitor the country's "fraudulent election," police summoned him.
After Tan submitted a written statement explaining his absence, police requested a travel ban from the Ministry of Justice on the 1st. The Ministry of Justice imposed a travel ban on Tan through the 30th.
The Cyber Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency summoned Tan at 10 a.m. that day, but he did not appear. Tan is scheduled to hold a press conference at 8 p.m. near Gates 2–3 of the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium, where the "ballot count center blockade protest" has been ongoing for 20 days, to state his position.