On May 8, the Seoul Administrative Court's Administrative Division 4, led by Judge Kim Young-min, ruled in favor of Park in her lawsuit against the Justice Minister seeking to overturn her disciplinary action.
In 2020, while serving as a disciplinary officer at the Justice Ministry, Park was accused of improperly using materials obtained during an investigation of Han Dong-hoon, then the Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Busan High Prosecutors' Office, in the investigation of Yoon Suk Yeol, who was then the Prosecutor General.
Following this, the Ministry's Disciplinary Committee imposed the highest level of disciplinary action, dismissal, on Park in February 2024, after the Yoon administration took office. Park contested the dismissal, claiming it was unjust, and filed a lawsuit against the Ministry. However, she did not wait for the court's decision and joined the Justice Innovation Party, subsequently running for the 22nd National Assembly elections, where she was elected as a proportional representative.
The court stated, "The meetings of the Justice Ministry's Disciplinary Committee are part of the internal decision-making process, which is conducted in private," and concluded that there were no grounds to consider this as a public disclosure or leak.
Additionally, the court clarified that Park's actions did not indicate an intent to gain personal benefit or undermine the fairness of her duties.
The ruling emphasized that the dismissal appeared to stem from errors in judgment or procedural mistakes during the execution of her disciplinary duties, and that the dismissal was excessively harsh compared to the recognized reasons for it.
In related news, the prosecution concluded in October of the previous year that there was no evidence to support allegations against Park regarding violations of the Communications Privacy Protection Act and the Personal Information Protection Act, as well as the leaking of official secrets.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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