Park Jong-jun, the former head of the Presidential Security Service, was sentenced to one year in prison for deleting information from encrypted phones belonging to former President Yoon Suk Yeol and others during the state of emergency on December 3.
The Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 12-2, presided over by judges Jo Jin-goo, Kim Min-a, and Lee Seung-cheol, overturned the first trial's not guilty verdict on the evidence destruction charge and imposed a one-year prison sentence on Park.
Park was indicted for remotely logging out and deleting call records from the encrypted phones of Yoon, former National Intelligence Service Deputy Director Hong Jang-won, and former Seoul Police Chief Kim Bong-sik on December 6, 2024.
The court rejected the first trial's conclusion that Park did not have the intent to destroy evidence when he deleted the information from Yoon's phone. It stated, "It is reasonable to conclude that Park was aware that the electronic information from Kim Bong-sik's phone was evidence in a criminal case involving Yoon Suk Yeol and others." The court also determined that Park was aware that the electronic information from Hong Jang-won and Yoon Suk Yeol's phones was also relevant evidence in the criminal case.
Additionally, the court did not accept Park's argument that the deletion was a security measure due to the exposure of the president's encrypted phone ID during a National Assembly session.
The judges noted, "Even if there was a purpose to prevent security incidents, the deletion cannot be seen as an urgent and unavoidable measure," adding that Park's actions could not be justified.
The court emphasized that the act of destroying evidence negatively impacted the discovery of the substantive truth in the criminal case, stating, "Considering the circumstances of the crime and the defendant's position, it is inevitable to hold him legally responsible."
In the first trial, the court had ruled, "It is difficult to acknowledge the intent to destroy evidence simply because the measures taken were inadequate or that there were better methods available after the fact," leading to a not guilty verdict.
The special prosecutor's team, led by Jo Eun-seok, requested a three-year sentence during the appeal hearing on September 15, similar to their request in the first trial.
Meanwhile, Park was also indicted for obstructing the execution of an arrest warrant by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials against Yoon Suk Yeol, receiving a four-year prison sentence in the first trial in July and was taken into custody. The appeal hearing for Park's charges related to obstructing special public duties is scheduled for the 28th.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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