Supreme Court upholds 3-year sentence handed down in both lower courts

Im Sung-geun, former commander of the Marine Corps' 1st Division. [Yonhap]
Im Sung-geun, former commander of the Marine Corps' 1st Division. [Yonhap]

The Supreme Court has confirmed a three-year prison sentence for Im Sung-geun, the former commander of the Marine Corps' 1st Division, who was held responsible for the death of a marine during a flood-relief search operation. The ruling came three years and three months after the late Cpl. Chae died in July 2023.

The Supreme Court's First Division, presided over by Justice Shin Suk-hee, upheld Tuesday the lower court's three-year sentence against Im on charges including occupational negligence causing death and injury, and violation of military orders. The court also confirmed 18-month sentences of imprisonment without labor for Park Sang-hyun, former commander of the 1st Division's 7th Brigade, and Choi Jin-gyu, former battalion commander of the 11th Artillery Battalion, both charged alongside Im with occupational negligence. A former company commander surnamed Jang received eight months' imprisonment without labor, suspended for two years.

The court said the lower court's judgment contained no errors of logic or experience that would have exceeded the bounds of free evaluation of evidence, nor any misapplication of the law on the charges of order violation or occupational negligence causing death and injury.

Im and the other defendants were indicted last year by a special prosecutor team led by Special Prosecutor Lee Myung-hyun on charges of causing Cpl. Chae's death and injuring other marines by failing to take adequate safety measures while commanding a missing-persons search operation in a flood-hit area of Yecheon-gun, North Gyeongsang Province, in July 2023. Chae was swept away by a strong current and killed while searching for missing persons in a river without wearing a life jacket or other safety equipment.

Im also faced charges of violating orders — specifically, fragmentary orders issued by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Army's Second Operations Command directing that operational control of the units deployed in the search be transferred to the Army's 50th Division commander. He was also accused of personally directing operations at the scene, issuing instructions on search methods and exercising personnel command authority.

The first court sentenced Im to three years in prison in May. It said the primary cause of the accident lay in the reckless and improper orders issued by senior commanders, and that holding those commanders to a higher degree of accountability for the death and other consequences was therefore appropriate.

The court also said the outcome was not merely the result of senior commanders neglecting their duty to protect the lives and safety of their troops, but the product of their active conduct — issuing reckless and unclear orders that compounded the danger even after they had recognized specific risk factors.

The second court also sentenced Im to three years in prison in August. While upholding the conviction on the occupational negligence charges, it acquitted him on the portion of the order-violation charge related to allowing the search operation to continue, departing from the first court's ruling on that point. However, it maintained the conviction for directing specific search methods during a video conference, finding that this constituted an encroachment on operational control.


yg@heraldcorp.com