Former Vice Minister of Employment and Labor, Jeong Hyun-ok, who was handed over to trial for concealing the illegal dispatch of Samsung Electronics Services, was also acquitted at the appeal trial.
On the 2nd, the 3rd Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court sentenced Vice Minister Jeong and Hyuk-tae Kwon, who were charged with obstructing the exercise of the right of abuse of authority, to the former head of the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Administration, following the first trial.
The court did not accept the prosecution's appeal against Deputy Minister Jung and Chief Kwon, saying, "The judgment of the defendant is justified."
In 2013, Vice Minister Jeong and others are suspected of overturning the results after extending the supervision period when it was predicted that illegal dispatch of Samsung Electronics Service AS Centers would be accepted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor's occasional labor supervision in 2013.
The prosecution has argued that Vice Minister Chung and others had stuck with Samsung, preventing investigators from making independent conclusions.
However, the first trial judged that there was not enough grounds to conclude that Vice Minister Jung had presided over a related meeting to change the results or that Samsung had abused his rights at the request of Samsung.
It was also difficult to say that Vice Minister Jung's request for Samsung to come up with an improvement plan was a legitimate job execution and gave guidance on the direction of the supervisory results.
Immediately after the sentence of the first trial, the prosecution appealed, saying, "The opinions of the investigators were disregarded by the superiors, and the conclusion was changed."
(Photo = Yonhap News)