On the 25th, the People Power Party strongly urged the immediate release of President Yoon Seok-yeol and called for a lawful investigation to be conducted again without detention, following the Seoul Central District Court's refusal to extend the president's detention period.
Shin Dong-wook, the chief spokesperson of the People Power Party, stated in a commentary on the same day, "Today’s decision by the Seoul Central District Court has put a stop to the plan of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) and the prosecution to divide the investigation period and proceed with supplementary investigations before indictment," adding, "It can be said that the court has effectively proven that the CIO’s investigation was a ‘shoddy investigation’ from the start."
He said, "From the beginning, the CIO, which does not even have jurisdiction over treason investigations, has been obsessed with arresting the sitting president by obtaining an arrest warrant through ‘judge shopping’ and other irregular means, fundamentally undermining the criminal justice system of the Republic of Korea. Therefore, the CIO, including Director Oh Dong-woon, must bear ‘strong legal responsibility.’" He added, "Since the CIO has only arrested President Yoon and no sufficient lawful investigation has been conducted to determine whether to indict, it will be virtually impossible for the prosecution to indict based solely on the CIO’s investigation records."
According to the prosecution, the court stated, "In cases where a CIO prosecutor investigates a high-ranking official’s crime and submits a request for indictment along with documents and evidence to a prosecution office prosecutor, it is difficult to see a substantial reason for the prosecution office prosecutor, who receives these materials and decides whether to indict, to continue the investigation."
The court cited as grounds for its judgment the legislative intent of the CIO Act, which established the CIO to investigate crimes of high-ranking officials independently, the purpose of ensuring fairness in investigations by separating investigation and prosecution and applying this separation between the CIO and the prosecution office under Article 26 of the CIO Act, and the absence of explicit provisions in the CIO Act regarding the prosecution office prosecutors’ authority or scope for supplementary investigations.
Earlier, the prosecution’s Special Investigation Headquarters for Emergency Martial Law had requested the court to extend President Yoon’s detention period until the 6th of next month.
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