Cha Gyu-geun, a member of the Rebuilding Korea Party, Lee Gyu-won, chairperson of the Rebuilding Korea Party strategy committee, and Lee Kwang-chul, former civil affairs secretary at the Blue House, were acquitted on charges of unlawfully banning former Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui from leaving the country during the Moon Jae-in administration on the 5th.
The Supreme Court's Second Division, presided over by Chief Justice Park Young-jae, confirmed the acquittal of Representative Cha, Chairperson Lee, and former Secretary Lee, who were indicted on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of rights.
They are accused of unlawfully banning former Vice Minister Kim from departing through Incheon International Airport on March 22, 2019. At that time, former Vice Minister Kim was awaiting a retrial related to the 'getaway sex services' case. Former Vice Minister Kim was indicted for receiving bribes of 200 million won, including sexual services, from a construction businessman surnamed Yoon, but was acquitted by the Supreme Court.
Representative Cha was the head of the Immigration Bureau at the Ministry of Justice at the time, and Chairperson Lee was a dispatched prosecutor from the Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office. According to the prosecution, Chairperson Lee submitted an emergency ban request using a previous case number that had already been cleared of charges back in March 2019 when former Vice Minister Kim attempted to leave the country. It was also investigated that an invalid investigation number from the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutor's Office was listed in a subsequent approval request.
Representative Cha is accused of later approving Chairperson Lee's emergency departure ban and being informed of the personal information inquiry concerning former Vice Minister Kim. Former Secretary Lee is suspected of having led the overall ban on departure while working at the Blue House at that time.
Prior to this, the first trial had acquitted most of these charges. Considering that the retrial of the Kim Hak-ui case had become a settled fact, it stated that it would be difficult to penalize under the abuse of authority charge. However, Chairperson Lee received a four-month suspended prison sentence for charges related to the fabrication and concealment of false departure ban requests.
The second trial overturned some of the guilty verdicts against Chairperson Lee as well. The court noted, "It is difficult to view that the documents were taken to the residence for the purpose of concealment." The Supreme Court also agreed that the second trial's decision was correct.