Contrary to the Special Prosecutor's Conclusion of 'No Evidence',
"There Are Suspicions of DVR Tampering" Maintains Position
Moon Ho-seung, Chairman of the Special Investigation Commission on Social Disasters (Sacheomwi) (left), speaking at the 143rd plenary committee meeting held on the 26th at Sacheomwi in Post Tower, Jung-gu, Seoul. (Photo by Yonhap News)
[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The Social Disaster Special Investigation Committee (SDSIC) has released investigation results that contradict the special prosecutor's conclusion that there is no evidence supporting allegations of evidence tampering related to the Sewol ferry disaster.
On the 26th, SDSIC held its 143rd plenary session and announced the results of the "Investigation into Allegations of Tampering and Edited Submission of Evidence Related to the Sewol Ferry Disaster."
The committee concluded that there are suspicious circumstances suggesting evidence tampering in all three major investigation tasks: ▲the collection process of the Sewol DVR (CCTV storage device), ▲DVR data manipulation, and ▲verification of the reliability of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) vessel track. These results came out three years and four months after SDSIC decided to start the investigation on December 11, 2018.
The Sewol Ferry Disaster Truth Investigation Bureau of SDSIC stated, "We believe the Sewol DVR was salvaged before June 22, 2014, and that an act was staged to conceal this fact by salvaging a different DVR than the one installed on the Sewol on June 22." This means SDSIC repeatedly found the suspicion credible that the Navy and Coast Guard collected the Sewol DVR before June 22, 2014, and swapped it with another DVR.
The Truth Investigation Bureau also found it difficult to fully accept the special prosecutor's investigation results regarding CCTV data manipulation. The bureau said, "We believe the DVR recovery company either did not recover some data for unknown reasons or concealed it even after recovery."
Regarding the Sewol AIS track, the bureau stated, "After verification from multiple angles, we confirmed numerous 'anomalies' in the Sewol AIS data for which no reasonable cause could be found," and added, "We judged that it is difficult to use this data as core evidence for scientific cause investigation."
The special prosecutor team led by Lee Hyun-joo, which investigated the same allegations, concluded in August last year that they did not find evidence or criminal charges supporting the allegations of Sewol CCTV data manipulation or the Navy and Coast Guard's collection process of the Sewol DVR, and decided not to prosecute.
With SDSIC issuing a judgment that contradicts the special prosecutor's conclusion, the controversy is unlikely to subside.
Regarding SDSIC's insistence on distrusting the special prosecutor's investigation results without presenting clear additional evidence, there are criticisms that the committee may have arbitrarily interpreted the circumstances related to the initially raised allegations.
SDSIC plans to conclude its substantive investigative activities by June 10, when the terms of its members expire, and to prepare a comprehensive report by September 10, when the committee is set to dissolve, to be submitted to the National Assembly and the President.
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