Choo Mi-ae on Facebook: "Public Interest Whistleblowing, Whose Public Interest Is It?"... Targeting Prosecutors' Investigation

Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] On the 22nd, Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae expressed her discomfort regarding the prosecution's investigation into the process of travel ban on former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui through her Facebook.

Despite explanations from the Ministry of Justice and Minister Choo that "there is no legal problem," the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office's all-out raid on the Ministry of Justice and the Fair Trade Commission the previous day, signaling a strong investigation, was interpreted as a veiled expression of dissatisfaction.

On the afternoon of the same day, Minister Choo posted a short message titled "Whistleblowing? Whose public interest is it really?" on her Facebook along with a link to an article containing an interview with Cha Gyu-geun, head of the Ministry of Justice's Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters.

The article included interview content from Head Cha, stating that Yoon Dae-jin, deputy director of the Judicial Research and Training Institute and known as a close aide to Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, also attended the meeting held to discuss the travel ban on former Deputy Minister Kim just before the incident. Head Cha said he thought it could be dereliction of duty if Kim was not prevented from leaving the country, so he instructed the responsible manager to immediately contact the headquarters if Kim's departure was confirmed at the airport.

In the post, Minister Choo questioned, "The prosecution ignored decisive evidence like videos to protect their own and instead conducted an investigation that impeached the victim, resulting in two non-prosecution decisions and missing the statute of limitations. Who is the public interest served by reconstructing a scenario for the actual and retrospective criminal suspect who assisted in avoiding the travel ban and attempted disguised departure, and raiding the Ministry of Justice?"

In March 2019, when public calls for reinvestigation were rising, former Deputy Minister Kim attempted to leave for Bangkok, Thailand, but was stopped just before boarding the plane by an emergency travel ban imposed by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Past Affairs Investigation Team.

However, it was revealed through a public interest report to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission that Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won, who was dispatched to the Past Affairs Investigation Team at the time, requested the emergency travel ban at Incheon Airport Immigration Office by listing the case number (Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office 2013 Criminal Case No. 65889) of the sexual assault case in which Kim was cleared in 2013. Later, in the emergency travel ban approval request submitted to the Ministry of Justice, a fabricated investigation number "Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office 2019 Internal Investigation No. 1" was listed instead of the original case number.

Neither Prosecutor Lee nor the Ministry of Justice has refuted the content of this public interest report. However, the Ministry of Justice and those involved in the case at the time argue, "Should we have just let former Deputy Minister Kim flee abroad?" Many citizens sympathize with this argument due to the unfair non-prosecution decision by the prosecution against Kim.

Nonetheless, legal circles generally hold the view that no matter how serious the crime, investigations must be conducted following proper procedures. Moreover, at that time, the Past Affairs Committee was only investigating whether to recommend reinvestigation, so Kim was not even a suspect, nor could he be considered an internal investigation subject. Therefore, this was a clear procedural violation, and Prosecutor Lee's actions constitute criminal offenses such as falsification of official documents.

In particular, the Ministry of Justice and Minister Choo explained that ▲ Prosecutor Lee had investigative authority and the right to assign investigation numbers at the time, and ▲ the Minister of Justice has general authority to impose travel bans on criminal suspects, so Prosecutor Lee's emergency travel ban request was not problematic. However, most prosecutors disagree with this explanation. Lawyer Park Jun-young, who directly participated as a civilian investigator in the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Past Affairs Investigation Team, also stated, "The Ministry of Justice's claim that it was an unavoidable task for the sake of justice is an unreasonable argument."

Meanwhile, the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Criminal Division 3 (Chief Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop), investigating the allegations of former Deputy Minister Kim's "illegal travel ban," conducted raids on the Ministry of Justice, the Fair Trade Commission, Incheon Airport, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office the previous day.

The targets of the raids included the Ministry of Justice's Immigration Inspection Division, Inspection Officer's Office, the office of the head of the Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters, the Fair Trade Commission's Legal Advisor's Office, Incheon Airport Immigration Office, and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Policy Planning Division. Additionally, the home of Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won, who fabricated the case number and directly requested the emergency travel ban, and the mobile phone of Head Cha were also searched.

The Suwon District Prosecutors' Office resumed raids on the Ministry of Justice and Incheon Airport Immigration Office, which require significant time for imaging work due to the volume of investigation materials, continuing from the previous day.