Beopseoryeon, Prosecutor Kim Dong-hyun Files Complaint Today Over Judge Kim Dong-hyun's Issuance of Warrant for Reporter Lee Dong-jae

Former Channel A reporter Dongjae Lee attending the warrant hearing held on the 17th at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] A civic group has announced plans to file a criminal complaint against the judge in charge of warrants who issued the arrest warrant for former Channel A reporter Lee Dong-jae, who is under investigation for the alleged "collusion between prosecution and media."

The Action Alliance for Restoring the Rule of Law (Beopse-ryeon, Representative Lee Jong-bae) announced on the 20th that it will file a criminal complaint against Kim Dong-hyun, the warrant judge at the Seoul Central District Court who handled Lee’s warrant hearing, on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights.

On the same day at 11 a.m., before submitting the complaint, Beopse-ryeon plans to hold a press conference in front of the entrance of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho-dong, Seoul, to point out the problems with the reasons Kim gave for issuing the warrant and to argue the unfairness of the warrant issuance.

In a press release distributed in advance, Lee Jong-bae, representative of Beopse-ryeon, claimed, “Most of the reasons presented by Judge Kim for issuing the arrest warrant are inappropriate and illegal.”

Lee said, “Judge Kim accepted as a given fact the collusion between the Channel A reporter and Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon, but the arrest warrant application submitted by the prosecution did not specify any collusion between the reporter and the prosecutor. Issuing an arrest warrant based on content not requested by the prosecution is clearly an abuse and overreach of judicial discretion.”

He also emphasized, “The reason for issuing the warrant that ‘there is considerable evidence to suspect an attempt to threaten the victim’ is also highly inappropriate and illegal.”

Lee added, “The ‘considerable evidence’ presented by the prosecution is a transcript of a conversation between the Channel A reporter and Prosecutor Han in Busan, but according to the publicly released transcript, there is no evidence of collusion between the reporter and Prosecutor Han. On the contrary, Prosecutor Han said he was ‘not interested in Yoo Si-min’s corruption,’ so the logic that they conspired to threaten to reveal Yoo Si-min’s corruption cannot be established from the start. Therefore, Judge Kim’s statement that ‘there is considerable evidence’ is effectively a false statement and an abuse and overreach of judicial discretion.”

Lee further stated, “The reason for detention that ‘detention is inevitable to restore trust in the prosecution and the media’ presumes the guilt of the Channel A reporter and Prosecutor Han, which is no different from the main trial and is highly inappropriate as grounds for detention, exceeding the discretion of the warrant judge.”

Finally, Lee said, “If a precedent is set to prosecute journalists for their reporting activities, freedom of the press will be severely damaged. Moreover, it is unacceptable for someone to be detained for investigating government corruption.”

He continued, “The illegal detention of the Channel A reporter is a very serious case that greatly undermines press freedom and threatens the rule of law. Therefore, we strongly urge the investigative authorities to thoroughly investigate Judge Kim’s illegal actions and impose severe punishment.”

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