Judicial inequity erodes public faith in court’s credibility
Tiger Woods, whom Koreans call the ``emperor of golf,” earns about 325 million won ($300,000) a day. In Korea, however, a jailbird makes 500 million won each day; local media call him, aptly, ``emperor prison laborer.”
The social
caused by a court ruling on a Gwangju-based businessman shows how provincial prosecutors and judges compete with each other to stretch the rules and save their native sons.
In 2007, prosecutors in the southwestern metropolis
ed Huh Jae-ho, the then chairman of the now-defunct Daejoo Group, for evading 50.8 billion won in taxes and embezzling 10 billion won. They demanded five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 101.6 billion won, but asked for, incomprehensively, a suspended sentence on the fine.
The lower court cut the prosecutorial demand practically in half, sentencing Huh to three years, suspended for five years, and fined him 50.8 billion won. The appeals court halved, yet again, the financial penalty to 25.4 billion won, and allowed him to pay it with just ``49 days” of prison labor, valuing his daily toil at 500 million won, about 10,000 times higher than the usual 50,000 won applied to ordinary prisoners. Strangely, the prosecution didn’t even lodge an appeal, leaving it all to the defendant’s side, which had nothing to lose.
Right after the appeals trial, Huh fled to New Zealand where he reportedly lived an
life _ yachting and gambling _ for four years until he was caught and sent back to Korea. Huh, who began his penal labor Saturday, earned 1.5 billion won while doing nothing for the first three days, because prisoners also do not work on weekends. He spent Monday receiving a medical checkup. Huh, 72, will likely make 100 paper bags a day, valued at 5 million won each.
The prosecutors and judges in Gwangju violated no laws throughout the trials but showed no wisdom of justice, either, by completely failing, or refusing, to consider judicial equity, which could be more important than their knowledge of legal principles. When high law enforcement officials put the letter of the law ahead of the judicial wisdom, it eats away at public faith in the court’s impartiality. It is small surprise then that the Supreme Court’s website is filled with protest tweets such as ``this is the difference between 1 and 9,999.”
The top court, instead of trying to defend its final ruling, needs to come up with an explanation on how such undue leniency was possible, and find out and plug legal
s.
For starters, it should specify the terms of converting fines into prison labor, now completely left to judges’ discretion. The court should strictly limit the ceiling on daily work’s worth and sharply extend its period. Also, it ought to reconsider the ``hometown judge system,” which leads to
between local tycoons and judicial officials.
Last Thursday, a Seoul court put a homeless man in prison for three years for stealing 15,000 won, applying additional punishment for specific (repetitive) crimes.
People usually talk about law and justice, meaning the two do not necessarily go together. One can reaffirm the reason why if money continues to tilt the scales of justice, as it does in this country.
This is The Korea Times editorial for Wednesday, March 26, 2014.
※ 다음에 나오는 문제들은 본 기사에 나오는 중요한 어휘들로 구성된 토익, 토플, 텝스 기출 및 예상 문제입니다.
※ Choose the one word or phrase that best keeps the meaning of the highlighted part or fill in the blank with a suitable one.
1. There was very little political
about the need for drastic measures to cope with an unprecedented financial crisis.
① controversy
② confusion
③ enterprise
④ examination
2. If the grand jury
the suspect, he will go to trial.
① charges
② acquits
③ condones
④ sentences
3. A miser grows rich by seeming poor ; an
man grows poor by seeming rich.
① extraordinary
② profligate
③ economic
④ frugal
4. A number of
still remain in the campaign contribution law.
① unprofitable sections
② logical arguments
③ ways of evading rules
④ descriptions for cheating
5.The lawyer was falsely accused of
with his client.
① armament
② truce
③ conspiracy
④ contract
[해설 및 정답]
1. [번역] 전례가 없는 금융위기에 대처하기 위해 과감한 조치를 취할 필요성에 대해서는 정치적인 논쟁은 거의 없었다.
[어휘] contention 다툼, 싸움, 투쟁; 경쟁; 논전(論戰), 언쟁, 논쟁(controversy); 논점, 주장
[정답] ①
2. [번역] 만일 대배심이 그 피의자를 기소하면, 그는 재판을 받게 될 것이다.
3. [번역] 구두쇠는 가난해 보임으로써 부유해지고 사치스런 사람은 부자인 것 같아 보임으로써 가난해 진다.
[정답] ②
4. [번역] 그 선거운동기부법에는 많은 허점들이 여전히 남아있다.
[정답] ③
5. [번역] 변호사는 그의 의뢰인과 결탁(공모)했다는 억울한 죄를 입었다.