Prosecutors Conduct Comprehensive Search and Seizure at Ministry of Justice, Fair Trade Commission, Supreme Prosecutors' Office, and Incheon Airport over 'Kim Hak-ui Illegal Departure' (Update)

On the 21st, when the prosecution investigating the travel ban case of former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-eui, which sparked controversy over illegality, conducted a search and seizure of the Ministry of Justice, a vehicle from the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office was parked in front of the Ministry of Justice building in Gwacheon.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] On the 21st, the prosecution investigating the allegations of 'illegal exit ban' against former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-eui, which occurred in March 2019, simultaneously conducted raids and seizures at multiple locations related to the case, including the Ministry of Justice, the Fair Trade Commission, Incheon Airport, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, initiating a forced investigation.

Comprehensive Raids at Ministry of Justice, Supreme Prosecutors' Office, Fair Trade Commission, and Incheon Airport... Also at Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won's Residence

The Criminal Division 3 of Suwon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop) conducted raids at the Ministry of Justice, the Fair Trade Commission, Incheon Airport, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office from the morning of the day.

The prosecution dispatched prosecutors and investigators to the Immigration and Foreigners Policy Headquarters of the Ministry of Justice, where allegations were raised that former Deputy Minister Kim's entry and exit records were illegally accessed at the time of the incident, to secure evidence such as computer log records. The Immigration Inspection Division and the Inspection Officer's Office of the Ministry of Justice were also included in the seizure targets.

Additionally, the prosecution raided the Fair Trade Commission at the Government Sejong Complex on the same day. It is known that the prosecution searched the Legal Advisory Office of the Fair Trade Commission, where Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won, who requested the exit ban on former Deputy Minister Kim at the time, was on secondment. The prosecution also reportedly conducted a search at Prosecutor Lee's residence.

Other locations included in the prosecution's raids were the Immigration and Foreigners Office at Incheon Airport and the Policy Planning Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. The Policy Planning Division was where Kim Tae-hoon, the Prosecutor General of the Ministry of Justice at the time, worked as the head of the Policy Planning Division and was responsible for matters related to the Prosecution Past Affairs Committee.

Several key executives currently holding important positions in the Ministry of Justice and prosecution, including Lee Yong-gu, Deputy Minister of Justice; Lee Seong-yoon, Chief Prosecutor of Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office; and Lee Jong-geun, Head of the Criminal Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, are involved in the illegal exit ban case against former Deputy Minister Kim.

One Week After Case Reassignment and Investigation Team Formation... Investigation Expected to Accelerate

Earlier, on the 13th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office reassigned the case, which was being investigated by the Criminal Division 3 of the Anyang Branch of Suwon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Je-seong), back to the main Suwon District Prosecutors' Office.

At the time, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office stated the reason for the reassignment was "to conduct a more thorough investigation into the allegations related to the 'Kim Hak-eui exit ban case,'" but there was analysis that suspicions of intentional delay in the investigation influenced the decision, as the investigation command line at the Anyang Branch was composed of prosecutors classified as the so-called 'Lee Seong-yoon faction' within the prosecution.

Lee Geun-su, head of the Anyang Branch, served as the second deputy chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office from February to September last year and closely assisted Chief Prosecutor Lee. Park Jin-won, deputy chief prosecutor of the Anyang Branch, also worked as head of the Investigation Division 1 at Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office before being assigned to the Anyang Branch.

When reassigning the case, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office also replaced the investigative command department from the Criminal Division to the Anti-Corruption and Strong Crime Division, which oversees special case investigations. This was based on the judgment that it was inappropriate for Lee Jong-geun, head of the Criminal Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, who was involved in the post-management of the 'illegal exit ban' as a policy advisor to then Minister of Justice Park Sang-ki, to receive reports and command the investigation.

At Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, Chief Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop, who directly investigated former Deputy Minister Kim and handled the trial as part of the 'Kim Hak-eui Investigation Team' led by Gwangju District Prosecutor Yeo Hwan-seop, is currently in charge of the case. Prosecutor Lee previously indicted former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk and former Blue House Civil Affairs Secretary Baek Won-woo in the 'Yoo Jae-soo investigation cover-up case' while serving as head of the Criminal Division 6 at Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office last year.

One day after the case was reassigned, on the 14th, Suwon District Prosecutors' Office formed an investigation team led by Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop and has been analyzing related materials such as whistleblower reports.

Along with analyzing the seized items obtained on the day, the prosecution is expected to soon begin summoning and questioning related individuals, indicating that the investigation will accelerate.

Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won's Document Forgery... Suspicions of Cover-up by Lee Seong-yoon, Lee Jong-geun, and Others

Former Deputy Minister Kim attempted to leave for Bangkok, Thailand, in March 2019 amid growing calls for reinvestigation but was stopped from boarding the plane just before departure due to an emergency exit ban imposed by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Past Affairs Investigation Team.

However, it was revealed through a whistleblower report to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission that Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won, who was seconded to the Past Affairs Investigation Team at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office at the time, submitted an emergency exit ban request to the Incheon Airport Immigration Office using a case number from a case that had already been dismissed years earlier and that then Minister of Justice Park Sang-ki and then Head of the Anti-Corruption and Strong Crime Division Lee Seong-yoon were involved in the approval process.

The emergency exit ban request submitted by Prosecutor Lee included the case number (Central District Prosecutors' Office 2013 Criminal Case No. 65889) of a sexual assault case that had already been dismissed by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in 2013. Later, the emergency exit ban approval request submitted to the Ministry of Justice replaced the case number with an internal investigation number 'Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office 2019 Internal Investigation No. 1.'

The case number from a previously dismissed case could not be used for an emergency exit ban request, and the internal investigation number from the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office in 2019 was only created on May 30, two months later, for a completely different case, making it a clear fake case number. This revealed that all these actions were document forgery carried out primarily to prevent former Deputy Minister Kim from leaving the country.

Moreover, in the legal community, it is widely held that Prosecutor Lee, as a dispatched member of the fact-finding investigation team, was only authorized to review records to assist external members and did not have the authority to investigate the Kim Hak-eui case itself. Therefore, he had no authority to assign an internal investigation number or request an emergency exit ban on his own.

Additionally, the emergency exit ban request and approval documents bore only Prosecutor Lee's name and lacked the official seal of the affiliated district prosecutor. It is also alleged that then Head of the Anti-Corruption and Strong Crime Division Lee Seong-yoon contacted the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office to request retroactive approval by entering the internal investigation number formally, but this was refused.

Ministry of Justice and Choo Mi-ae's "No Problem" Explanation Backfires, Lawyer Park Jun-young Says "No Grounds for Kim Hak-eui Exit Ban"

After the allegations surfaced, the Ministry of Justice issued explanations twice.

As the 'illegal exit ban' controversy grew, on the 12th, the Ministry of Justice explained via a notification message that "Prosecutor Lee is a 'law enforcement agency' appointed as 'Acting Prosecutor of Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office' and thus has the authority to conduct investigations, assign internal investigation numbers, and request emergency exit bans." However, frontline prosecutors mostly believe that dispatched prosecutors to the investigation team do not have investigative authority and that attaching a fake case number to request an emergency exit ban constitutes the crimes of forgery and use of forged documents.

The Ministry of Justice also added that "at the time, it was necessary to consider the urgent and unavoidable circumstances of a former high-ranking official facing serious charges attempting to flee abroad late at night," but this was criticized as relying on public criticism of former Deputy Minister Kim without providing a clear explanation of procedural illegality.

Despite the Ministry of Justice's explanation, the controversy did not subside, and as the prosecution's full-scale investigation began, on the 16th, the Ministry stated, "The controversy regarding some procedures related to the emergency exit ban imposed due to former Deputy Minister Kim's late-night overseas departure attempt is a secondary issue that does not affect the legality and appropriateness of the exit ban itself, considering that the Minister of Justice has the authority to impose exit bans ex officio under the Immigration Control Act."

They added, "There have been precedents where the Minister of Justice imposed exit bans ex officio without requests from investigative agencies."

Shortly after the Ministry's additional statement, Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae emphasized on her Facebook, "Exit bans are the authority of the Minister of Justice," and "The Minister of Justice can impose exit bans ex officio even without requests from investigative agencies." She cited Article 4, Paragraph 2 of the Immigration Control Act, which states that "The Minister of Justice may prohibit exit for a period not exceeding one month for persons deemed inappropriate to leave the country for criminal investigations."

She also claimed, "Prosecutors are investigative agencies that can request exit bans as single administrative agencies, and even if the Minister acts based on such requests, it is not illegal."

However, on the same day, Yoo Sang-beom, a member of the People Power Party, posted on his Facebook directly contradicting this, stating, "The Minister of Justice cannot impose (emergency) exit bans ex officio unless there is a criminal investigation."

Yoo criticized, "The Ministry of Justice's explanation is a futile struggle to justify illegal emergency exit bans by exploiting legal technicalities," and "It is making claims that undermine the rule of law."

He first pointed out, "Emergency exit bans are based on Article 4-6 of the Immigration Control Act, and for the Minister of Justice to act ex officio, it should be interpreted as allowed under this provision. Since that is impossible, they did not mention this provision at all and instead cited the general exit ban provision in Article 4, Paragraph 2, confusing the issue and misleading the public as if there was no illegality despite the illogical connection."

He further argued, "Articles 4-6, Paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Immigration Control Act stipulate that 'investigative agencies' may request emergency exit bans in urgent cases and must request approval from the Minister of Justice within six hours. In other words, only investigative agencies have the right to request emergency exit bans to efficiently respond to urgent situations where suspects attempt to flee abroad during criminal investigations, and the Minister of Justice only has the approval authority."

Park Jun-young, a defense lawyer specializing in retrials who worked as a civilian investigator in the Past Affairs Investigation Team at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in 2019 and voluntarily resigned from the fact-finding investigation team just before the problematic 'illegal exit ban' was imposed, also posted on his Facebook the same day, stating, "Former Deputy Minister Kim was acquitted in the first trial and partially convicted in the second trial. The partially convicted charges were not problematic at the time of the exit ban," and "The charges were found after a thorough search by dozens of prosecutors and investigators. This was why there were criticisms of a separate investigation at the time."

He added, "The claim that the handling was unavoidable for the sake of justice is an unreasonable argument considering the criminal liability possibility of the charges emphasized at the time of the exit ban. The court ruled all charges as not guilty or dismissed (due to statute of limitations)."

On the 18th, Park posted again on Facebook titled 'Progress of the Related Incident,' detailing the situation at the time, stating, "There was no basis for the exit ban on former Deputy Minister Kim. Because the exit was blocked under the pretext of a criminal investigation, a situation arose where a request for investigation had to be made. And since it was an 'emergency' exit ban, the investigation request could not be delayed."

In the post, he detailed the process where the Past Affairs Committee refused to extend the fact-finding investigation team's activity period on March 12, 2019, but after President Moon Jae-in ordered a thorough truth investigation into the Kim Hak-eui case on March 18, the same day the Past Affairs Committee recommended a two-month extension of the fact-finding investigation team's activities, and four days later, the emergency exit ban on former Deputy Minister Kim was imposed.

This is interpreted as a forced measure using illegal means to prevent the failure of the President's directive due to former Deputy Minister Kim's departure without additional charges or evidence being secured.

He also directly criticized Minister Choo Mi-ae, saying, "Minister Choo, it seems you are not well aware of the 'situation at the time of the investigation request, the content of the investigation request, and the investigation process of the investigation team.' I hope you listen carefully to those involved in the investigation team and decide whether to continue supporting the investigation."