A Seoul district court on Thursday cleared former Constitutional Court Justice Cho Dae-hyun of charges that he had broken into an office along with several other suspects.

Cho, who is working for a law firm, had been indicted for colluding with members of a church who attempted to steal internal documents from the church office. He was the attorney for the church members who were embroiled in a legal dispute with other devotees.

But the Seoul Central District Court made it clear that Cho had not urged the members to break into the office but instead told them to bring some documents for the trial case on the dispute during a meeting to select the leader of the church.

The court stressed that the two members, surnamed Rim and Kim, had the responsibility of submitting the documents, saying that “it does not go against the law.” Rim, 65, and Kim, 45, were also acquitted of their charges.

The prosecution earlier called on the court to sentence Cho to six months in prison.

Investigators have claimed that Cho and the other suspects sought to secure testimony that could harm their opponents by searching the office illegally.

Cho, who was appointed as a justice of the Constitutional Court during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, has been regarded as a liberal justice, having issued many liberal rulings. He has been working for the law firm Yoon & Yang LLC (also called Hwawoo) since 2011.

Six justices of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court who were appointed under the Roh administration retired in 2011 and were replaced with conservative figures.

This large-scale change created a stir within the judiciary, which had been accused of having a left-wing bias by the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration and other politicians.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)