Special Counsel: "Acquittal of Former Presidential Security Service Chief Over 'Yoon Suk Yeol's Secure Phone Deletion' Is Hard to Accept"

The special counsel team has argued in an appellate court that the first-instance acquittal of former Presidential Security Service Chief Park Jong-jun, who was indicted on charges of deleting secure phone information belonging to former President Yoon Suk Yeol and others following the December 3 insurrection, is "hard to accept."

On July 14, the Special Counsel team for the Insurrection Case requested that the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 12-2 (Presiding Judges Cho Jin-gu, Kim Min-a, and Lee Seung-cheol) overturn the first-instance acquittal and sentence Park to three years in prison, the same term requested during the initial trial, during the first hearing of his appeal regarding charges of evidence destruction.

The special counsel team stated, "The defendant gave the order to delete the information while fully aware that the secure phone data constituted evidence for the investigation, and thus the intent to destroy evidence is clearly established," adding, "The lower court's judgment denying the intent to destroy evidence is difficult to accept."

The team emphasized, "As the top official responsible for presidential security, the defendant possesses more investigative experience and information-gathering capabilities than the average person," and added, "He clearly recognized that the secure phone records were evidence for criminal cases and disciplinary proceedings, such as impeachment, against Yoon Suk Yeol."

In response, Park's defense counsel argued, "At the time, the call logs of former First Deputy Director of the National Intelligence Service Hong Jang-won were disclosed to the media, leading to the exposure of Yoon Suk Yeol's secure phone ID and device model," and claimed, "The National Intelligence Service deemed this a security breach and requested action from the Presidential Security Service, and the defendant instructed his staff to take countermeasures."

The defense further emphasized, "The defendant was merely performing his duties to fulfill his role as the Chief of the Presidential Security Service."

Park also took the opportunity to speak, stating, "While the staff at the Security Service may have rushed their work or exercised poor judgment, I had no intention whatsoever to protect the President by breaking the law," and appealed for his innocence.

The court plans to hold one additional hearing on August 11 to conduct evidence examination and questioning of the defendant, after which it intends to conclude the arguments if possible.

Park was indicted in December of last year on charges of arbitrarily deleting secure phone information belonging to former President Yoon, former Deputy Director Hong, and former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Kim Bong-sik via remote logout following the emergency martial law declaration.

In May, the first-instance court ruled him not guilty, stating, "Just because the measures taken were insufficient or there might have been more desirable methods in hindsight, it cannot be presumed that there was an intent to destroy evidence."

Apart from this case, Park was sentenced to four years in prison and taken into court custody on July 9 in a separate first-instance trial for charges of obstructing the execution of an arrest warrant for former President Yoon by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.