Son Junseong's Side "Prosecutors' Office Threatens Appearance by Mentioning 'Presidential Election Schedule'"... Investigation Team Text Messages Released

Son Joon-sung, former Chief of Investigation Information Policy at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] On the 25th, the legal team representing former Senior Prosecutor Son Jun-seong, who was recently subject to an arrest warrant request, expressed strong regret over the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (HOGICO) filing the arrest warrant without summoning him for questioning.

Additionally, Son’s legal team claimed that HOGICO sent a threatening text message effectively coercing his appearance by mentioning the 'presidential election schedule' and the possibility of forced investigation, and they disclosed the text messages sent by the investigation team.

Park, the attorney representing former Senior Prosecutor Son, stated in a press release sent to reporters that "Today, HOGICO publicly announced the request for an arrest warrant against Prosecutor Son Jun-seong. Despite repeatedly and illegally disclosing the suspect’s details through the media, HOGICO proceeded with the arrest warrant request without properly notifying the suspect or his counsel of the charges during the summons, clearly violating procedures, and without conducting even the minimum required investigation. We express serious concern and regret over this."

Attorney Park added, "Since early October, Prosecutor Son has been sincerely coordinating his attendance schedule with HOGICO, clearly explaining multiple times that he intends to cooperate with the investigation and is in the process of appointing legal counsel, seeking their understanding."

Park further argued that former Senior Prosecutor Son’s inability to respond to HOGICO’s summons was unavoidable due to delays in appointing legal counsel.

He explained, "Several lawyers felt burdened by HOGICO’s intimidating approach and hesitated to take the case, resulting in my appointment as counsel only on the 21st. On the day of my appointment, I clearly informed HOGICO that I would attend on November 2nd after reviewing the case. Nevertheless, on the 22nd, a HOGICO prosecutor sent a de facto threatening text message to the suspect and counsel, citing 'political considerations related to the presidential primary schedule and mentioning forced investigation.' Immediately after, they filed the arrest warrant request. Neither the suspect nor counsel were informed of the date the arrest warrant was requested," expressing strong dissatisfaction.

Attorney Park pointed out, "The suspect and counsel coordinated the summons timing with HOGICO to receive at least the minimum constitutional right to legal assistance. However, ignoring constitutional and criminal procedure law rights, HOGICO suddenly filed the arrest warrant without any notification to the suspect or counsel."

He continued, "Moreover, unlike the usual case where an arrest warrant is requested when a suspect clearly refuses to appear, HOGICO filed the arrest warrant last week without conducting any investigation and did not notify the counsel for several days. Even though the hearing is scheduled for tomorrow morning, they only belatedly informed the counsel today about the arrest warrant request. This can only be seen as a measure that nullifies the suspect’s right to defense and completely infringes upon constitutional fundamental rights."

Attorney Park emphasized, "HOGICO explicitly mentioned the 'People Power Party presidential primary schedule' to pressure immediate attendance, but the suspect has no interest or involvement in the opposition party’s presidential candidate selection. It is unacceptable that HOGICO, abandoning its political neutrality obligation, infringes on the suspect’s constitutional and criminal procedure law defense rights due to political intentions to interfere in the opposition primary."

He added, "To my knowledge, no investigative agency has ever forcibly pressured attendance citing a political party’s presidential primary schedule or requested an arrest warrant without any investigation despite the suspect clearly expressing willingness to appear."

Finally, Attorney Park disclosed the text message from HOGICO mentioning the need to consider the 'presidential primary schedule' and attached a screenshot of the message sent to former Senior Prosecutor Son.

A screenshot of the text message sent by the Corruption Investigation Office investigation team to Son Jun-sung, former Policy Officer for Investigation Information at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office./Provided by Dr. Park's lawyer