An appeals court on Thursday ordered the government to cancel its dismissal of a former energy and resources ambassador who was acquitted of the charge of manipulating stock prices.

Overruling a lower court's decision, the Seoul High Court ruled in favor of Kim Eun-seok, who had been indicted on charges of colluding with a mine developer to reap massive profits from a stock price rigging scam linked to a diamond mining project in Cameroon.

Ok Deok-gyun, the former head of CNK International, was found guilty of exaggerating the volume of the diamond reserves in a Cameroon mine through a press release in 2010.

Kim was alleged to have played a role in getting the foreign ministry to issue the press release on the diamond project, but was later acquitted by local courts.

Kim later filed a suit against the foreign ministry for relieving him of his post just because he was indicted. The former envoy said such actions conflicted with the right of presumption of innocence.

The Seoul High Court said considering the results of the criminal case, which acquitted Kim, the ministry's dismissal was unfair. (Yonhap)