'Luxury Bag Delivery' Pastor Choi Jaeyoung's Prosecutor Review Committee Meeting Scheduled

Central District Prosecutors' Office Citizen Committee Decision... Separate from Susimwi's 'Non-Prosecution Recommendation for Kim Yeosa'

The Prosecution Review Committee (PRC) will be convened to investigate Pastor Choi Jaeyoung, who handed a luxury handbag to First Lady Kim Geonhee, wife of President Yoon Seok-yeol.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the legal community on the 9th, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Citizens' Committee held a referral review meeting on the same day and decided to refer the agenda requested by Pastor Choi to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office PRC. The Citizens' Committee, composed of 15 ordinary citizens including office workers, professors, and civic group officials, conducted a closed-door discussion for about two hours based on written opinions submitted by the prosecution and Pastor Choi, and made this decision.

On this day, the Citizens' Committee discussed whether to refer only Pastor Choi, among the parties involved in the luxury handbag incident, to the PRC. Pastor Choi is accused of handing over a Dior luxury handbag worth approximately 3 million won to First Lady Kim at the Cobana Contents office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on September 13, 2022, and secretly filming the scene with a wristwatch hidden camera. Regarding this suspicion, Pastor Choi has been reported to the prosecution on charges including violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, trespassing, and obstruction of official duties by deception.

When a party involved in a case with public suspicion or social attention requests the convening of a PRC, the Citizens' Committee formed at each prosecutors' office first reviews whether to refer the agenda to the PRC. This referral review meeting is a separate procedure from the PRC on the First Lady Kim case, which was convened ex officio by Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok on the 6th.

Previously, the PRC on the First Lady Kim case recommended 'non-prosecution' for six charges including violation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act, bribery, mediation of bribery, violation of the Attorney-at-Law Act, abuse of authority, and destruction of evidence. Since the PRC randomly selects members to participate by case, if a separate PRC is held for Pastor Choi's case, different members from those in the First Lady Kim case will review the case details again. Therefore, depending on the conclusion of the PRC requested by Pastor Choi, there is a prospect that variables may arise in the direction or timing of the disposition of the First Lady Kim luxury handbag case.