The prosecution has decided not to indict Han Dong-hoon, the former representative of the People Power Party, who was accused of criticizing Gwak No-hyun, then a candidate for the Seoul Superintendent of Education, during the by-election last October.
According to the legal community on the 18th, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office dismissed the charges against the former representative, who was accused of violating the Education Autonomy Act, due to insufficient evidence on the 15th.
Park Sang-soo, the spokesperson for the former representative's campaign for the People Power Party presidential primary, stated on Facebook that the prosecution explained that Han's remarks could be interpreted as pointing out institutional issues regarding a person who has not fulfilled their obligations to return election expenses when running for office again and noted that it is difficult to conclude that the remarks oppose the indictment's election.
He further noted that "the intent of criticizing the complainant's candidacy does not appear to denounce the complainant's policies but rather asserts that it is inappropriate for the complainant, who was convicted of bribery in the past Seoul Superintendent of Education election and resigned from the position, to run for office again without returning the election expense compensation."
Additionally, it was assessed that the former representative's remark describing Gwak No-hyun's appearance as "the worst uneducational scene worth recording in recent history" seems to criticize the current legal system and the complainant's situation of running again rather than critiquing the complainant's qualifications as an education superintendent.
Earlier, Gwak, then a candidate, accused Han of influencing the election by creating a negative perception of the candidate, even though the representative should not have been involved in the superintendent election as a party leader, and reported him to the police in September of last year.