Members of the Chungbuk Dong Branch, who are suspected of carrying out activities against the introduction of the American stealth fighter F-35A under orders from North Korean agents, entered the Cheongju District Court to interrogate suspects before their arrest on August 2 last year. 2021.8.2/News1 ⓒ News1 Reporter Yongbin Kim
The court immediately dismissed the fifth request for judicial recusal from the defendants in the spy group ‘Chungbuk-dong Branch’ case, without transferring the decision to another court, saying, “The purpose of delaying the lawsuit is clear.” The first trial sentencing date was also set for February, right before the judicial appointments are made. This means that the decision will not be passed on to another court. The charges applied to the defendants are that they formed an underground organization under orders from North Korean agents starting in 2017, recruited local figures, and discovered state secrets. The court must have decided that such an important trial should not be postponed any longer.
The defendants in this case have been using all kinds of measures to delay the trial, including applications for unconstitutionality trials and applications for judicial recusal. Three of the four defendants banded together and submitted three applications to recuse themselves from the judge, and the remaining one even used the ‘split application’ method of filing separate applications for recusal. If the application was rejected, the appeal and re-appeal were repeated. In the meantime, the trial was suspended and the defendants were all released on bail after the expiration of their detention period. It was to the point where it could hardly be called a trial.
Current law allows the court to immediately dismiss a request to recuse a judge with a clear intention to delay the trial and proceed with the trial. The application filed by the defendants in this case can also be considered to fall under this category. However, the trial was seriously delayed as the court passed the judgment to another court and the judgment was delayed. If the court in charge of the case had dismissed the application right from the beginning, this situation would not have come to this.
The same goes for other espionage cases. The defendants have already been released after using all sorts of means to delay the trial, including applications for recusal from judges and applications for citizen participation in trials, and it is unclear when the first trial will end. The defendants in the Jeju spy ring case were all released without going to trial. This happened as judges postponed decisions on various applications and conducted trials in a formality. Not long ago, in the first trial held nine months after the defendants in the Jeju espionage case were indicted, there was an incident where they left the room without permission from the judge after 25 minutes. A detention order could be issued, but the judge just watched. In trials with even the slightest political burden, the judges repeatedly pretend to hold a trial and then ‘run away’ during the greeting ceremony. In order to prevent trial disruptions and establish judicial justice, judges must take responsibility and show a firm appearance.
2024-02-08 18:16:00
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