Seoul Education chief Cho Hee-yeon has refuted a Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials(CIO) committee's judgment that said he was guilty of exercising favoritism in the re-employment of several dismissed teachers in 2018. 

Cho’s legal representative Lee Jae-hwa argued on Monday that the committee reached the conclusion based solely on the prosecution’s opinions. 

Claiming that lawyers and prosecutors are given equal guarantees to issue opinions but that only senior prosecutor Kim Seong-mun was allowed to make a case during the review process, the legal counsel urged the CIO to reconvene a review committee to deliberate on its decision. 

Earlier in the day, a CIO review committee comprising lawyers and scholars concluded that Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Cho should be indicted over the allegation that he had exerted undue influence and pressure in the reemployment of five former teachers. 

Cho has denied wrongdoing in the matter.