Warrant sought for court administration body

Prosecutors sought an arrest warrant late Tuesday for a former deputy chief of the National Court Administration accused of abusing his power. In the application, they named former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae as an accomplice, closing in on the high-ranking judge at the center of a massive scandal over judiciary power abuse.

Seoul District Court will review the request for the arrest warrant for Lim Jong-hun, the former deputy chief of the court administration body, Friday morning, the court said Wednesday.

Chief Judge Lim Min-seong at the Seoul Court was picked to review the warrant in a random computer-generated selection process. 

The prosecutors requested the warrant for Lim on multiple charges, including abuse of authority and dereliction of duty.

Yang served as the top court chief from 2011 to 2017. The prosecutors suspect Lim aided Yang in using politically sensitive trials as bargaining chips to win favor from the Park Geun-hye administration. Lim was the NCA’s head of planning and coordination from 2012 until last year.

According to the investigators, Lim took action to influence rulings in several cases, including a lawsuit brought against two Japanese companies by elderly Korean men who were forced into labor during the Japanese colonial period. He asked Park’s presidential office for favors, such as the dispatching of more judges to overseas missions, investigators said.

He is also suspected of creating a 273-page report in November 2016 analyzing whether the ousted former president had violated laws against abusing power. Park was still in office and facing impeachment at that time.

Lim also played a critical role in meddling in a trial, which led to the ruling that the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union was an illegal union, and of leading secret investigations of judges who were deemed critical of Yang’s office.

The prosecution raided Lim’s home and office in July and seized a USB flash drive that was used to store many related documents.

In the warrant application, which reportedly is more than 230 pages long, the prosecutors stated that former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang and former Supreme Court justices Ko Young-han, Park Byeong-dae and Cha Han-sung, who also served as chiefs of the NCA, were accomplices of ex-deputy chief Lim.

Chief Judge Lim of the Seoul Court, who is to review the arrest warrant, has not served on the Supreme Court or the NCA.

Since the prosecution started its investigation into the judiciary in June, the court has rejected 90 percent of the warrant requests by the investigators and has taken flak from the prosecutors and public.

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea has also been highlighting the need for a special tribunal to ensure fair trials for the suspects in the power abuse scandal.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)