[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] On the 26th, the prosecution investigating allegations of 'illegal departure' involving former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui conducted a search and seizure of the Anti-Corruption and Violence Division (Anti-Corruption Division) of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. This came five days after a comprehensive search and seizure was carried out on the Ministry of Justice, the Fair Trade Commission, Incheon Airport, and the Policy Planning Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on the 21st.
The search and seizure on this day appears to have been conducted to secure materials related to allegations that Lee Seong-yoon, then head of the Anti-Corruption and Violence Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and currently Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, obstructed the investigation into the illegal departure by the Anyang Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office immediately after the incident occurred in March 2019.
The Criminal Division 3 of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop) conducted the search and seizure at the Anti-Corruption Division office within the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul.
A prosecution official stated, "The Suwon District Prosecutors' Office conducted a search and seizure of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Anti-Corruption Division in relation to the investigation of Kim Hak-ui's illegal departure."
The search and seizure appears to be related to allegations that the investigation team of the Anyang Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, which investigated the leak of Kim's departure information from April to July 2019, attempted to investigate the illegal departure allegations against former Deputy Minister Kim, but the Anti-Corruption Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office exerted external pressure to block the expansion of the investigation.
In April 2019, the Anyang Branch, upon the Ministry of Justice's investigation request, was investigating allegations that a public interest legal officer of the Ministry of Justice leaked departure information to former Deputy Minister Kim. During this, Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Past Affairs Investigation Team confirmed that an 'emergency departure' was requested using a 'fake' case number and internal investigation number and that post-approval was obtained, and attempted to investigate, but the Anti-Corruption Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office blocked this.
According to the public interest report submitted to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, in July 2019, the Anti-Corruption Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office had the Anyang Branch investigation team prepare an investigation report stating that "the departure procedure was carried out urgently at night, and it was reported afterward to the Eastern District Prosecutor who assigned the internal investigation number, with no plans for further investigation."
Prior to this, Lee, the Chief Prosecutor, is also suspected of contacting a senior official of the Eastern District Prosecutors' Office immediately after the illegal departure incident of former Deputy Minister Kim on March 23, 2019, requesting that the Eastern District Prosecutor retroactively approve the submission of departure documents, but was refused.
Meanwhile, Park Beom-gye, the nominee for Minister of Justice, responded at the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing the previous day to a question from Kim Yong-min, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, asking whether the case should be transferred to the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (Public Officials Corruption Investigation Office, POGO) since the investigation target is a prosecutor, by saying, "According to the POGO Act, it would be appropriate to transfer the case to POGO in the current situation."
While Kim Jin-wook, head of POGO, estimated that it would take about two months for the organization, including the deputy head, prosecutors, and investigators, to be fully established, it is expected that the prosecution will accelerate the investigation as much as possible before POGO is fully operational.
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