A South Korean judge who had more than doubled the sentence of the country’s former first lady in the second degree last week was found dead today, police said.
Shin Jong-o was found “unconscious at around 1 a.m. (19:00 GMT yesterday, Tuesday)…at the Seoul Court of Appeals,” an investigator from the police station in Seocho, a district of the capital, told Agence France-Presse.
Shin was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead, the investigator added, clarifying that “nothing indicates that this was a criminal act.”
According to local media, Shin left a suicide note, which the investigator denied.
Last month, Shin Jong had presided over the appeals court trial of former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee, 53, finding her guilty of stock price manipulation and corruption, increasing her 20-month jail sentence to four years in prison.
The Court of Appeal overturned the acquittal of the lower court on the charge of manipulating share prices.
Shin Jong-o had said Kim Keon-hee “did not admit her guilt and instead kept resorting to excuses.”
Kim is the wife of former President Yun Suk Yeol, who was ousted after his disastrous attempt to impose martial law in late 2024, for which he is now in jail.
The police investigator said today that the judge’s family, “devastated”, is asking for their privacy to be respected.
