[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Regarding the suspicion of the 'Yoon Seok-yeol Prosecutor General smear inspection,' the prosecution seized the mobile phone of former Ministry of Justice inspection officer Park Eun-jung (currently head prosecutor of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office Important Economic Crime Investigation Division).
According to the legal community on the 1st, on the 29th of last month, the Criminal Division 5 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Choi Wooyoung) seized Park's mobile phone and secured communication records, among other data.
Earlier, former officer Park was accused of unlawfully providing Ministry of Justice and Supreme Prosecutors' Office materials obtained under the pretext of inspecting Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon (currently Minister of Justice) in connection with the 'Channel A case' in October 2020 to the Ministry of Justice Inspection Committee. At that time, the Ministry of Justice was conducting an inspection of then-Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, who is now President.
There is also suspicion that the materials were not included in Minister Han's inspection report initially, but were later added with altered dates to destroy evidence.
This case surfaced when Prosecutor A, who was dispatched to the Ministry of Justice inspection office at the time, exposed the unfairness of the inspection under his real name on the prosecution's internal network in November 2020. Prosecutor A claimed that after reviewing and analyzing multiple rulings regarding whether Yoon's abuse of authority and obstruction of rights charges were valid, he concluded that the charges were unlikely to be established, but former officer Park instructed to omit this conclusion from the report.
On the 4th of last month, the prosecution searched the Ministry of Justice inspection office and the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office records management department. They also summoned Prosecutor A to trace the circumstances under which the inspection materials were delivered to the Ministry of Justice Inspection Committee. The prosecution plans to summon former officer Park as a suspect for investigation once the analysis of the seized items from Park's mobile phone is completed.
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