Supreme Court Confirms Dismissal of Indictments for Doctor and Member of Elite University Drug Club

The dismissal of indictments has been finalized for a doctor and a member of a university joint club who were accused of taking drugs with members of a so-called elite university drug club.

The Supreme Court's First Division (presiding Justice Chun Dae-yeop) finalized the lower court's ruling to dismiss the indictments against a 36-year-old doctor surnamed Lee and a 24-year-old club member surnamed Bae, both of whom were indicted on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act (concerning psychotropic substances, etc.) today (the 13th).

The dismissal of an indictment is a legal procedure where a court terminates a case without reviewing the substantive merits because the prosecutor's indictment procedure violated the law.

The Supreme Court ruled that there was no error in the lower court's judgment that the indictments were invalid because the case exceeded the prosecution's authority to initiate investigations.

The joint club "Kkanbu," formed mainly by students from 13 prestigious universities in the metropolitan area, was accused of collectively distributing and taking drugs for a year starting from late 2022.

Lee, who worked as a clinical instructor at a tertiary general hospital in Seoul, was accused of purchasing narcotics from a 33-year-old club president surnamed Yum and taking them with club member Bae between October and November 2023.

Prosecutors found that Lee even performed surgeries on seven patients on the same day Lee took drugs.

Bae was also indicted on charges of purchasing and taking narcotics from Yum between February and December 2023.

In December 2024, the first-instance court sentenced doctor Lee to one year in prison suspended for two years, and Bae to two years and six months in prison suspended for three years.

However, the appellate court issued a dismissal of the indictments in April of this year.

Initially, the police sent drug cases involving other suspects to the prosecutors, but these did not include the crimes of Bae or Lee, nor were they identified as suspects or witnesses during the investigation process.

Later, while investigating the transferred case, a prosecutor received a voluntary confession from another accomplice, which revealed the fact that Bae had taken drugs together with someone else.

Using this as a clue, the prosecutor investigated and indicted Bae and Lee.

Consequently, the appellate court ruled that no specific and individual connection was recognized between their crimes and the case originally transferred.

The investigation was initiated based on a separate investigative clue—the voluntary confession of another suspect—rather than during the course of investigating the transferred case.

Article 4, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the Prosecutors' Office Act stipulates that prosecutors may initiate investigations into crimes "directly related to crimes recognized in connection with crimes transferred by the police," aside from corruption crimes and others.

In this case, because direct relevance was not recognized, the court judged that the prosecution's initiation of the investigation was illegal, and consequently, the indictment itself was also illegal and invalid.

Meanwhile, club president Yum, who is considered the main culprit of the case, was separately put on trial and had a sentence of one year and six months in prison finalized by the Supreme Court in June.
 
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.