Moon appeals court ruling on plagiarism
Voters to file lawsuit to strip him of Assembly seat
By Jung Min-ho
Moon Dae-sung
Moon Dae-sung, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and a member of the National Assembly for the ruling party is appealing against a district court ruling that found he plagiarized parts of his doctoral thesis.
“Moon submitted a petition of appeal to the Seoul High Court on Monday,” a judge told The Korea Times Wednesday.
On Oct. 16, the Seoul Northern District Court that he plagiarized parts of his academic work, saying he “used many parts of other papers without changing a single word and without citing them.”
The ruling came after Kookmin University
of his doctorate degree in sports psychology on March 6. He immediately filed a lawsuit to nullify the decision.
After the district court ruling, Moon told the IOC that he would appeal against it.
On Oct. 20, IOC spokesman Andrew Mitchell said the organization received confirmation from Moon that he would lodge an appeal.
However, he waited until Monday, one day before the deadline for submission of an appeal.
An aide to Moon who is also a Saenuri Party lawmaker representing the Saha-A district in Busan, refused to comment, claiming that “he does everything about the matter by himself.”
Meanwhile, residents in his district are moving to sue him this month, claiming that he violated Election Law while campaigning for a seat in the nation’s parliament.
“He lied when he said he hadn’t plagiarized his thesis during a television debate in the run-up to a National Assembly election in 2012. So many voters were deceived,” said a resident, who refused to be identified.
“This happened two years ago. But we believe we still can hold him accountable for it because the Kookmin’s confirmation came out recently.”
Observers say that Moon is just trying to buy time through pursuing the legal action despite the obvious plagiarism. Meanwhile, he will likely remain an IOC member and a lawmaker ― the terms for both positions do not expire until 2016.