By Lee Kyung-min
A Suwon District Court judge is under fire for posting 10,000 extremely right-wing and often vulgar political comments online over the past seven years.
The 45-year-old judge, identified only by his surname Lee, has admitted to making the posts saying he was merely expressing his opinion as an individual, according to Suwon District Court.
Following media reports on Wednesday, Lee immediately asked for a leave of absence, postponing 10 cases due for sentencing the next day.
Lee used four different IDs on the portal sites Naver and Daum to post extreme views on social issues and also on cases he was actually presiding over.
Born in Daegu, Lee often posted negative comments against Jeolla Provinces.
Most recently, the judge posted comments defending former spy agency chief Won Sei-hoon, who was sentenced to three years in prison for meddling in the 2012 presidential election in favor of Park Geun-hye. A day before his sentencing, referring to the presiding judge Kim Sang-hwan, Lee wrote, “Won is likely to be found guilty because of judge Kim’s ties to the Jeolla Provinces.”
Also, Lee defended comments posted on Ilbe, a notorious online community website full of extreme right-wing views.
Lee criticized an arrest warrant issued against a teenage Ilbe member for calling the Sewol victims “fish cakes.” Lee said the arrest was posing a grave threat to freedom of speech in a democratic society.
In one case, referring to late President Roh Moo-hyun, a liberal politician who committed suicide by jumping off a cliff near his home in Gimhae in South Gyeongsang Province in 2009, Lee said, “Roh is the king of jumping off. Why did he deliberately hit his head on a rock like an egg simply to quit life?”
In another case, referring to the citizens who held a rally in 2008 in Gwanghwamun, downtown Seoul, protesting the then President Lee Myug-bak administration, Lee said, “Those Roh followers should have their brains bashed in with an ax. Those useless dumb people do not know anything.”
Other than social issues, Lee divulged details about cases he was presiding over, showing bias against one party over another.
In one case where a husband and a wife sued each other for adultery, Lee said, “The wife’s family is simply shameless. Naked photos of their daughter having sex with another man were all presented during the hearing, and they still demand punishment for the husband. They have no sense of guilt or humiliation,” he said.
The Supreme Court plans to investigate his case and arrange a disciplinary committee on the grounds that Lee violated the judicial code of conduct by engaging in undignified behavior that could jeopardize the reputation of the judiciary as a whole.
Lee might face charges for violating laws governing the ethics code of public servants that bans them from engaging in any political activity or openly stating personal views on politics.
In 2011, a Seoul Northern District Court Judge Seo Gi-ho and Changwon District Court Judge Lee Jung-reul wrote personal political views on their social networking sites. Seo is now a minor Justice Party member.
They both criticized former President Lee Myung-bak in 2011, describing him using degrading words. Both were given warnings by each court’s head.