South Korea court upholds two-year sentence for opposition leader over school admission scandal
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Cho Kuk, leader of Rebuilding Korea Party, speaking in front of the National Assembly in Seoul, on Dec 4.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
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Seoul - South Korea’s Supreme Court on Dec 12 upheld a two-year jail sentence for prominent opposition leader Cho Kuk on charges including bribery and academic fraud in a scandal that has deepened the political divide in the country and disenchanted many young voters.
The verdict stripped Cho Kuk, a former justice minister and President Yoon Suk Yeol’s adversary who now runs the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party, of his seat in Parliament and his right to run for office for the next five years.
It could also undermine the opposition camp’s all-out efforts to impeach Mr Yoon over his martial law attempt in a vote scheduled for Dec 14, even though another member will inherit Cho’s seat – among the party’s 12 in the single-chamber, 300-seat assembly.
Cho has been at the forefront of efforts to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol in the wake of his short-lived imposition of martial law last week, which plunged democratic South Korea into political chaos.
“The Supreme Court finds the charges of obstruction of business, and public and private document forgery... against the defendant to be valid,” the country’s highest court said in a statement, upholding a lower court’s ruling.
It was unclear when Cho will be imprisoned. He has denied wrongdoing and said after the verdict that he would accept it with a “heavy heart” and his party would continue activities.
“I have a lot to say, but I won’t,” he told a news conference. “But it doesn’t mean that our party is backing down.”
His party earlier said in a statement that it respects the verdict but expressed regret, adding that Mr Yoon had ordered a “brutal” investigation against Cho when he was prosecutor-general.
“His role is crucial in resolving the mess that Yoon’s gang has made. Why now?“ the party said in a statement.
Cho, formerly a high-profile academic and an aide to former president Moon Jae-in, was once considered a rising political star and a potential candidate to succeed his boss.
He was appointed to lead the powerful Justice Ministry in 2019.
But he was shortly after embroiled in a scandal over his children’s education, accused of forging academic documents for his son and daughter to give them an advantage in college and graduate school admissions.
Seoul’s Central District Court sentenced him to two years in 2023,
Cho’s liberal Rebuilding Korea party won 12 seats in 2024’s parliamentary elections on an anti-Yoon platform. REUTERS, AFP
