Supreme Court Overturns Guilty Verdict for Police Officer in Hwang Ui-jo Investigation Leak Case

The appellate court's guilty verdict against a police officer accused of leaking investigation information related to the illegal filming case of soccer player Hwang Ui-jo (34, Alanyaspor) has been overturned by the Supreme Court.

The ruling was based on the rationale that it was inappropriate for the second instance court to conclude arguments at the first trial without conducting additional evidentiary investigations, such as witness examinations, and immediately overturn the first instance court's not-guilty judgment despite the complete absence of direct evidence.

The Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Seo Kyung-hwan) reversed the lower court's ruling sentencing police officer Cho to one year in prison on charges of divulging official secrets, and sent the case back to the Seoul Central District Court last July.

Cho, who worked at the Cyber Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, was arrested and indicted in July of the same year on charges of tipping off an acquaintance, lawyer A, about Hwang's case in January 2024.

Prosecutors concluded that the information in question was transmitted to broker B through lawyer A.

The investigation began after Hwang, who was under investigation for illegal filming at the time, claimed that a broker approached him demanding money in exchange for quashing the investigation and disclosed the location and date of the search and seizure.

The first instance court acquitted Cho, stating that there was no direct evidence that Cho leaked the information and that other circumstantial evidence was insufficient to prove the charges.

In December of last year, the appellate court overturned the first instance ruling and sentenced Cho to one year in prison.

The appellate court based its decision on the relationship between the two individuals, suggesting a motive for Cho to leak information to lawyer A, and noted that call logs of those involved were confirmed around the time the search and seizure information was leaked.

However, the Supreme Court ruled that this appellate judgment was difficult to accept.

The Supreme Court stated, "When an appellate court overturns a lower court's judgment in a retrospective manner without any newly revealed objective grounds affecting the formation of conviction, there must be reasonable circumstances showing that the first instance court's assessment of evidentiary value was clearly erroneous or that its fact-finding and reasoning violated empirical rules and were remarkably unjust," adding, "The fact-finding judgment of the first instance should not be arbitrarily overturned without such exceptional circumstances."

The Supreme Court also reaffirmed the legal principle that "to acknowledge guilt based solely on circumstantial evidence, there must be overwhelmingly superior proof sufficient to conclude that the defendant committed the crime."

First, the Supreme Court pointed out that there is absolutely no direct evidence that Cho leaked the search and seizure information, and that the individuals involved also testified that there was no leakage or transmission of such information.

The Supreme Court noted, "If so, rather than immediately overturning the first instance judgment, the lower court should have carefully determined whether the defendant's leakage of information could be acknowledged in accordance with relevant legal principles after taking procedural steps such as re-examining lawyer A and broker B as witnesses to conduct additional evidentiary investigations."

Meanwhile, Hwang Ui-jo received a final sentence of one year in prison suspended for two years in September of last year on charges of illegal filming.

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