Appellate court confirms abuse of power conviction for Seoul education chief

Cho Hee-yeon, center, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, is surrounded by reporters while leaving the Seoul High Court in southern Seoul, Jan. 18. Yonhap

An appellate court on Thursday upheld the conviction of Seoul's top education official indicted for a controversial reinstatement of dismissed teachers years ago.

The Seoul High Court confirmed a lower court's prison sentence of one-and-a-half-year, suspended for two years, for Cho Hee-yeon, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, for abusing his power in reinstating five dismissed teachers, including former members of a teachers' labor union, in 2018.

The court said it seemed that the minimum level of open competitiveness was not secured in the reinstatement process and private favors worked instead.

Cho, who was elected as Seoul's education chief for a third time in 2022, will lose his job if his conviction is confirmed by the court. By law, an education official with a confirmed conviction of imprisonment is subject to retirement. (Yonhap)