The Supreme Court on Thursday confirmed the acquittal of a former presidential chief of staff charged with falsifying a public document in connection with the 2014 sinking of the Sewol ferry.

The final ruling for Kim Ki-choon, chief of staff to ousted President Park Geun-hye, came after the Supreme Court struck down a guilty verdict for him in August last year and the Seoul High Court acquitted him of lying in a Sewol-related document submitted to the National Assembly in a retrial in November of the same year.

Kim was indicted in 2018 on charges of falsifying the time Park was briefed on the deadly accident in an attempt to fend off criticism the government bungled its response.

Lower courts had previously acknowledged that Kim had forged the Sewol-related documents, but the Supreme Court sent the case back to the Seoul High Court, saying the documents contained both facts and opinions.

On April 16, 2014, the 6,800-ton Sewol, carrying 476 passengers en route to the southern resort island of Jeju, capsized in waters off the southwestern coast, killing 304 people, mostly high school students on a school trip. (Yonhap)