BUSAN — Four former aides to Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo have all been found guilty of destroying evidence just before a police search related to allegations that he took money from the Unification Church while serving as a National Assembly member. The senior secretary among them was sentenced to prison and taken into custody in the courtroom.
Senior Judge Kim Su-hong of the Criminal Division 3 at the Busan District Court's Western Branch on the 30th sentenced the mayor's former senior secretary, identified as A, to one year in prison and ordered A taken into custody. A grade-4 chief aide identified as B received an eight-month prison term suspended for two years, along with 120 hours of community service. A grade-8 secretary identified as C and an intern secretary identified as D were each fined 3 million won.
The trial centered on whether the destroyed storage devices contained material directly related to the bribery allegations, and whether the crime of destroying evidence could be established at the time. The defendants argued that the statute of limitations on the allegations against the mayor had already expired and that the destroyed devices held no relevant evidence. At the first hearing, defense counsel had likewise argued that the devices contained nothing to support the allegations.
The court rejected those arguments. Judge Kim found that if the amount the mayor allegedly received were confirmed at 30 million won or more, the statute of limitations could extend to 10 years or longer, meaning it could not be concluded that criminal prosecution was impossible at the time. The court also said the destroyed devices appeared to have held evidence relevant to a criminal case, such as schedules and meeting records, and that even if the evidentiary value of that material was limited, it did not affect the establishment of the offense.
The court distinguished the roles and responsibilities of the aides. A was found to have played a leading role in carrying out the acts at the Busan office. B did not personally destroy the devices but, as the most senior figure at the Busan office, directed the acts together with A, the court found. Intern D removed a storage device from a PC on a superior's instructions but could have sufficiently anticipated the concealment and destruction that followed, the court said. In sentencing, however, it took into account that D had little choice but to follow a superior's orders and had no prior record.
Ahead of the police search last December, the aides reset work computers and physically damaged storage devices. They were accused of taking apart hard disk drives with a screwdriver and smashing them with a hammer, and of bending solid-state drives by hand and foot before discarding them in a field and in a bathhouse trash bin.
The court placed particular emphasis on the public nature of the case. Judge Kim said the significance was substantial because the evidence destroyed related to a criminal case involving bribery by a politician who has served as a National Assembly member, a minister and a sitting head of a metropolitan local government. "The public's constitutional right to know was gravely violated," the judge said.
This ruling is separate from any finding of guilt on the mayor's own alleged receipt of money. In April, a joint police-prosecution investigation headquarters declined to indict the mayor over the Unification Church allegations, citing the expiration of the statute of limitations and insufficient evidence, and said it had not been established whether he directed his aides to destroy evidence.
At the final hearing last month, prosecutors sought one year and six months in prison for A, one year each for B and C, and six months for D.
