Prosecutors Expand Investigation into Vice Minister Lee Yong-gu Case amid Police's 'Systematic Cover-up' Allegations

Lee Yong-gu, Deputy Minister of Justice. / Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporters Seokjin Choi, Gwanju Lee] It has come to light that the police ignored the black box footage showing Vice Minister of Justice Lee Yong-gu assaulting a taxi driver, leading the prosecution to have no choice but to investigate whether there was an organized cover-up by the police.

The police belatedly placed the officer involved on administrative leave and formed an internal fact-finding team to begin an investigation. However, given the facts already confirmed, it will be difficult to avoid criticism of a ‘lenient investigation,’ and concerns over the adjustment of investigative authority between the police and prosecution are expected to grow.

According to the prosecution on the 25th, the Criminal Division 5 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office (Chief Prosecutor Dong-eon Lee), which is investigating the case involving Vice Minister Lee, is reviewing the possibility of applying charges of assault against a driver under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes based on the assault footage obtained by restoring the taxi’s black box SD card, analysis of the taxi’s GPS data, and the taxi driver A’s witness testimony from the previous day.

The prosecution is conducting investigations into multiple complaints related to this case, broadly divided into two categories: ‘Vice Minister Lee’s assault on the driver’ and ‘allegations of police covering up the incident.’

Initially, the prosecution investigated the Seoul Seocho Police Station, which applied simple assault charges to Vice Minister Lee and closed the case, as well as the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency officers in higher positions for abuse of authority or dereliction of duty.

However, through an interview with Mr. A, concrete circumstances emerged indicating that the responsible police officer deliberately tried to conceal the existence of the black box footage. The police admitted this in their internal investigation, making it necessary for the prosecution to verify whether higher-ups were involved.

Previously, the police consistently maintained that they could not find the black box footage. They explained that they could not confirm the situation at the scene because they failed to secure the black box, which was key evidence to clarify the assault allegations during driving, and that the case had to be closed after Vice Minister Lee and the taxi driver reached a settlement in the meantime.

Police Commissioner Kim Chang-ryong also explained in a written statement at the end of last month, “The Seocho Police Station reviewed the scene, victim’s testimony, and related precedents and applied assault charges. Since the victim expressed a desire not to press charges before the case was filed, the investigation was closed due to lack of prosecutorial rights.”

However, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency announced yesterday that “It has been partially confirmed that Officer A, the investigator in charge at Seocho Police Station, viewed the black box footage on November 11 last year.” This amounts to admitting that the premise of the police’s previous explanations for closing the investigation was incorrect.

Ultimately, the police placed Officer A on administrative leave and formed a 13-member joint fact-finding team combining inquiry and investigation, led by the head of the Seoul Police Agency’s investigation division, to conduct an internal investigation.

The core of the investigation is the timing when Officer A became aware of the existence of the black box footage.

Even if Officer A confirmed the footage’s existence after the case was closed, it would be difficult to avoid responsibility for covering up the case. However, if it is confirmed that the footage was reviewed beforehand and the case was closed regardless, it can only be seen as a clear ‘lenient investigation,’ which could cause a much larger scandal depending on how far the report was escalated?to team leaders, section chiefs, or the police chief.

Since the prosecution had already decided to conduct its own investigation before the enactment of the investigative authority adjustment law, it plans to proceed independently regardless of the police’s internal investigation results.

Meanwhile, on the same day, the Judicial Examination Preparation Group (Sajunmo) announced that they submitted an additional request for investigation to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office via the National Petition Portal, asking for a review of whether the charge of obstruction of evidence applies in relation to media reports that Vice Minister Lee asked the taxi driver to delete the black box footage.

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