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Jou Kyung-bok

Members of the campaign of former candidate for Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education superintendent Jou Kyung-bok, a 59 year-old professor at Konkuk University, say they are going to apply for a petition to the Constitutional Court regarding the prosecution’s practice of seizing the personal emails of individuals being investigated. Jou is under investigation on allegations he violated election laws during his campaign. Investigators were given wide leverage by a court warrant that did not specify a time period to review and search through his emails, and were handed up to seven years worth of records.

Jou and officials from his campaign, and the Korea Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo) say that prosecutors violated his right to have his communication privacy protected, his right to be informed of the search, and his right to happiness.

While investigating Joo and members of his campaign last year, prosecutors obtained email records including some whose content had been exchanged as far back as seven years ago. The records were obtained from accounts at some fourteen mail services providers, including some managed by the country’s major portal sites.

In their written petition for a decision by the Constitutional Court, they claim “people write emails under the premise their privacy will be protected, and thus email forms a sphere of privacy where people communicate personal thoughts.” >

“Since there is no difference in this regard from other means of communication, like the telephone, the prosecution’s treatment and seizure of emails as physical objects instead of communications is a major invasion of privacy. In the case of phone wiretaps, the party involved eventually receives an official notice of the fact it took place, but in the case of the seizure of emails, no such notice is given.”

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