Cha Gyugeun "Will Decide After Observing Whistleblower's Accusation and Investigation Team's Determination"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Cha Gyugeun, head of the Ministry of Justice's Immigration and Foreigners Policy Headquarters, stated, "It is contradictory that while procedural illegality related to the travel ban on former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui is being raised, no media shows interest in the procedural illegality of leaking official records to a specific political party."

On the 26th, Cha made this statement in a position paper sent to the press corps, addressing the consideration of filing charges against the whistleblower who raised the allegations and expressing his stance on the leak.

In the statement, Cha said, "Looking at the whistleblower's media interview, who even claimed investigation interference, it is easy to identify that the person is a prosecutor involved in the investigation at the time." He added, "The abuse of authority under the Criminal Act, which the whistleblower seems to take issue with, is not included in the list of public interest violation laws specified in the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act's annex," and "I understand that in the recent case involving a former Blue House administrator, the court also did not recognize it as a public interest report."

However, he revealed, "The mention of considering filing charges was intended to urge the prosecution investigation team to investigate these allegations with balance, and I plan to make a judgment after observing the investigation team's willingness to investigate in the future."

Earlier, Cha had appeared on a radio broadcast the previous day and stated that he was considering filing charges against the whistleblower. Cha argued, "Even when raising issues regarding the legality of the travel ban, I believe proper procedures must be followed."

Meanwhile, on the 20th, the whistleblower submitted a second public interest report to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, accusing Lee Seong-yoon, then head of the Anti-Corruption and Violence Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. The whistleblower claimed that Lee was the final decision-maker who halted additional investigations after being informed in advance about the illegality of the travel ban investigation.

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