'COVID-19 Confirmed Patients' Personal Information Leak' Four Seoul Seongbuk-gu Officials Sent to Prosecution

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] The custody of public officials who were investigated by the police on charges of leaking official documents containing personal information of confirmed COVID-19 patients to the outside has been transferred to the prosecution.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced on the 9th that it plans to send four public officials, including Mr. A from Seongbuk District Office, to the prosecution with a recommendation for indictment on charges of violating the Personal Information Protection Act.

The police launched an investigation after documents containing personal information of the fifth confirmed COVID-19 patient in Korea and information about close contacts were circulated in the form of photo files on internet communities and social networking services (SNS) on January 30.

The documents were confirmed to have been prepared by the Seongbuk District Public Health Center, and the police identified that other district office employees leaked them externally for non-work-related purposes.

A police official stated, "We plan to respond strictly to false fabricated information and personal information leaks that cause social unrest."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.