Supreme Court throws out conviction over illegal evidence seizure

The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a lower court's conviction in a case involving charges under the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes, ruling that investigators illegally seized evidence by ignoring warrant limitations and infringing on the right to legal counsel.

The justices found that obtaining phone recording files not specified in the search warrant was unlawful, an illegality that could not be cured even by a retroactive warrant or the defendant's consent. They further held that seizing documents generated between a suspect or defendant and their lawyer regarding the criminal case violates the constitutional right to assistance of counsel unless exceptional circumstances involving significant public interest exist.

Because the primary evidence was collected in violation of due process, the court ruled that secondary evidence derived from it, including the defendant's courtroom testimony, lacked admissibility. The prosecution failed to prove that any causal link between the initial illegal collection and subsequent evidence had been severed, particularly noting that the illegally seized materials served as the trigger for the investigation and were presented to the defendant during interrogations.

In its decision for case 2025Do4422, announced on February 26, the high court emphasized that the language specifying objects to be seized in a warrant must be interpreted strictly to uphold the spirit of due process. It stated that expanding the scope of a warrant to the detriment of the suspect is impermissible.

Consequently, the Supreme Court broke the original judgment regarding charges related to filming and distributing illicit videos and remanded the entire case to the lower court for a new trial.