'Supreme Court had info on Park's impeachment ruling'

Investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office take materials they seized during a search of the offices and residences of two senior judges in Seoul, Monday, as part of the investigation into the Supreme Court's alleged misdeeds. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

The Supreme Court, under former Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae, is found to have obtained secret documents of the Constitutional Court including one regarding the impeachment trial of former President Park Geun-hye.

According to the prosecution, Tuesday, a judge dispatched to the Constitutional Court from February 2015 to February 2018 collected a dozen classified documents and leaked them to the Supreme Court.

The document leakage came to light as the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office is currently analyzing a hard drive and a USB device taken from Im Jong-heon, former vice director of the National Court Administration (NCA), as part of its investigation into the judicial abuse scandal. The NCA is the top court's administrative body.

Yang is facing allegations of using high-profile trials as bargaining chips in dealing with the Park administration over organizational changes.

On Monday, prosecutors searched the office of a senior judge of the Seoul Central District Court, identified as Choi, after securing testimonies that Choi leaked the classified documents during his dispatch to the Constitutional Court.

The prosecution believes the documents were reported to Im and Lee Kyu-jin, a Seoul High Court judge and former member of the Sentencing Commission of the Supreme Court, via email.

Prosecutors on Monday also searched the office and residence of Lee, who was allegedly involved in drawing up surveillance reports on judges critical of Yang's plan to establish a de facto "Second Supreme Court."

One document, among others, included instructions from Constitutional Court then-President Park Han-chul between late 2016 and early 2017 to other justices of the court to seek measures for quick progress on Park's impeachment trial. The head of state was removed from office after the court upheld the impeachment on March 10, 2017.

Given that the trial date and the ruling could bring major changes to political circles, the document leakage is seen as Yang's move to analyze how the situation would develop.

Other leaked documents also included discussions by nine judges of the Constitutional Court at their regular conference on cases related to the Supreme Court.

The prosecution is also investigating if the Supreme Court lobbied Constitutional Court judges specifically, based on the discussions from the conference where each judge's opinion on specific cases was displayed.

“The Supreme Court under Yang appears to have used the leaked documents in a power game with the Constitutional Court,” a prosecutor-turned-lawyer said.

In the wake of the document leaks, the prosecution plans to summon those related to the incident.