Prosecutors' Office Raided by PCO Investigation Team Over 'Lee Seong-yoon Indictment Leak'... Court Rules "Not Illegal"

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] The court has ruled that the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit's (HCIC) search and seizure of the former Suwon District Prosecutors' Office investigation team over the controversy surrounding the leak of the indictment of former Seoul High Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon was not illegal.

According to the legal community on the 6th, Judge Kwak Tae-hyun of the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 32 dismissed the quasi-appeal filed by the investigation team, including Chief Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop (currently head of the Fair Trade Investigation Department at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office), on the 1st of this month. A quasi-appeal is an objection filed with the court by a party subjected to measures such as search and seizure by investigative agencies.

The investigation team indicted former High Prosecutor Lee in May 2021 on charges of exerting external pressure during the investigation into the illegal travel ban of former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui. The issue arose when the indictment of former High Prosecutor Lee was reported in the media before it was even delivered to him.

The HCIC, which investigated this case, judged that the investigation team was involved in the process of leaking the indictment and conducted a search and seizure of the Information and Communications Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in November of the same year.

In response, the investigation team filed a quasi-appeal with the court in January last year, claiming that there were illegalities in the execution of the warrant by the HCIC.

However, the court did not accept the investigation team's claim that the warrant was illegal because some prosecutors' affiliations and detailed names of the seizure targets were inaccurately stated.

Regarding the investigation team's claim that the participation of police officers dispatched to the HCIC in the search and seizure was illegal, the court ruled, "Under the HCIC Act, investigative auxiliary public officials can be dispatched without special restrictions, and the execution of the warrant was conducted under the direction of the HCIC prosecutor to assist the investigation, thus it is lawful."