South Korea’s former chief justice Yang Sung-tae indicted in abuse of power scandal
- The 71-year-old is alleged to have misused his position to lobby the office of then president Park Geun-hye for the establishment of a new appeals court
A former Supreme Court chief justice was indicted on Monday on charges that he abused his authority to influence trials as a political tool to lobby the previous government.
Yang Sung-tae, Supreme Court chief from 2011 to 2017, is the first former or sitting South Korean chief justice to be indicted.
He was placed in pretrial detention on January 24 after being questioned several times by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.
The 71-year-old is alleged to have misused his position to lobby the office of then president Park Geun-hye for the establishment of a new appeals court.
He is also accused of delaying top-court rulings on controversial wartime forced labour cases involving Japanese firms, at a time when the Park administration was seeking friendly ties with Japan.
The Supreme Court eventually ruled on the wartime labour case in October, upholding a lower-court ruling that ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal to pay four South Korean plaintiffs 100 million won (US$88,000) each in compensation for forced labour.