An appellate court on Thursday upheld the conviction of Seoul's top education official indicted for a controversial reinstatement of dismissed teachers years ago. The Seoul High Court confirmed a lower court's prison sentence of 1 1/2 years, suspended for two years, for Cho Hee-yeon, superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, for abusing his power in reinstating five dismissed teachers, including former members of a teachers' labor union, in 2018. The court said it seemed that the minimum level of open competitiveness was not secured in the reinstatement process and private favors worked instead. Cho, who was elected as Seoul's education chief for a third time in 2022, will lose his job if his conviction is confirmed by the court. By law, an education official with a confirmed conviction of imprisonment is subject to retirement. Source: Yonhap News Agency