A former prosecutor who allowed a person involved in a case to photograph seized items and other investigation materials in the prosecutor's office during an investigation, enabling their leakage outside, has been brought to trial.
On the 6th, the Investigation Division 3 of the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (HICO) announced that they had indicted former prosecutor Park (50, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 35) without detention the previous day on charges of leaking official secrets.
Government Gwacheon Complex, Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials. Photo by Heo Young-han
Park, who was serving as a prosecutor in the Defense Acquisition Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, is accused of allowing whistleblower B, related to the bribe-giving case of A in the "Gyeongnam Sacheon Military Supply Corruption Case," to photograph a handwritten memo seized from A in his office on November 7, 2019, and also allowing the photographing of A's financial transaction information secured through a search warrant at the same location on December 4 of the same year. B, who had a legal dispute with A after their business partnership broke down, is known to have used these materials obtained in this manner as evidence in his own trial.
This case was first revealed through media reports stating that a suspect and whistleblower under investigation by the prosecution took 171 photos of investigation materials left unattended by the prosecutor during the investigation and leaked them, subsequently using them in his trial.
Later, in October last year, during the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee's audit of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and HICO, Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Young-bae urged then HICO Chief Kim Jin-wook to investigate the matter.
Park claimed that B took the photos secretly, but some photos included screens of PCs logged into the prosecution's internal network, E-Pros, which could not have been taken without cooperation from investigators or prosecutors.
After conducting internal inspections and investigations on Park, the prosecution indicted him in September on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act and the Real Name Financial Transactions Act. The case regarding Park's official secret leakage charges was transferred to HICO under the HICO Act.
Before filing the indictment, HICO held a Prosecution Deliberation Committee meeting, where all attending members unanimously decided to indict Park, HICO stated.
A HICO official said, "We plan to cooperate with the prosecution to ensure thorough maintenance of the prosecution going forward."
Park, who had been working as a chief prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, was transferred to a frontline district prosecutor's office in June and has since left the prosecution to work as the lead attorney at a small to medium-sized law firm.
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