Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won of the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office, who was indicted for involvement in the illegal travel ban of former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui, is attending a trial held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 15th. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Supreme Prosecutors' Office has decided to suspend Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won of the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office for six months for writing a false report while investigating former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui's "villa sexual bribery allegations."
According to the legal community on the 20th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Inspection Committee recently held a meeting and resolved that such disciplinary action should be requested against Prosecutor Lee.
The Inspection Committee is composed of figures from the legal, academic, media, economic, women's, and civic sectors appointed by the Prosecutor General, as well as senior officials from the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution, with an external member serving as the chairperson.
Following the committee's recommendation, if Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo requests disciplinary action, the Ministry of Justice's Prosecutor Disciplinary Committee will finalize the level of punishment.
Prosecutor Lee is accused of writing interview reports in 2018-2019 for the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Past Affairs Investigation Team regarding key figures in the "villa sexual bribery allegations," such as construction businessman Yoon Joong-chun and former Blue House administrator Park Kwan-cheon, including false content that Yoon and others did not mention, and in early 2019, printing and handing over Yoon's interview report to two reporters or informing them of its contents, leading to media coverage.
The prosecution indicted him last month on charges of obstruction of business and violation of the Information and Communications Network Act (defamation), arguing that the Past Affairs Committee distributed a press release containing falsehoods and made a recommendation for investigation based on the false interview reports written by Prosecutor Lee.
Prosecutor Lee was separately indicted in April last year on charges of involvement in the illegal travel ban of former Deputy Minister Kim and is currently on trial along with former Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters Director Cha Gyu-geun (currently a research fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute) and former Civil Affairs Secretary Lee Kwang-cheol.
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