Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Reviews Detention of Cha Gyugeun and Lee Gyuwon... Interest in Whether Lee Seongyun Will Comply with Summons

Lee Seong-yoon, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (left), and Cha Gyu-geun, Head of the Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The prosecution investigating the illegal travel ban case involving former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui is currently deliberating on the detention of key suspects in the case: former Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Past Affairs Investigation Division and Cha Gyu-geun, Head of the Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters.

According to the legal community on the 19th, the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office's "Kim Hak-ui Travel Ban Investigation Team" (led by Lee Jeong-seop, Head of Criminal Division 3) summoned and questioned Head Cha and Prosecutor Lee on the 16th and 17th, respectively.

In Head Cha's case, after a detention warrant was dismissed once, he had been uncooperative with prosecution summons for some time, causing difficulties in the investigation, but a summons schedule was finally arranged. For Prosecutor Lee, this was the first investigation conducted after the case was re-transferred from the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (HOCI).

Initially, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lim Se-jin, dispatched from the Pyeongtaek Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, was in charge of investigating Head Cha, while Prosecutor Kim Gyeong-mok, who was transferred to the Busan District Prosecutors' Office while working at Suwon, was handling Prosecutor Lee's investigation in a dispatched capacity.

However, with the summons schedule for Head Cha confirmed, on the 12th, when HOCI re-transferred the case involving Prosecutor Lee and others back to Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye denied the extension of their dispatch approvals. Consequently, the investigations were conducted by the two remaining prosecutors on the original investigation team.

Since Prosecutor Lee has been summoned five times and Head Cha four times, the investigation team is now considering filing a detention warrant for Prosecutor Lee and reapplying for a warrant for Head Cha.

Previously, the court dismissed the detention warrant for Head Cha, citing no risk of evidence destruction or flight, despite acknowledging the seriousness of the case and the need for strict adherence to due process.

Although the detention warrant was dismissed due to the absence of flight or evidence destruction risks, the court recognized that Prosecutor Lee's procedural irregularities?such as entering a fake internal investigation number in the emergency travel ban application?and Head Cha's approval of this constituted a serious crime violating the principle of due process.

Typically, the prosecution views that the more serious the crime, the greater the risk of flight or evidence destruction. A serious crime implies a heavier sentence if convicted, which naturally motivates concealment and escape.

On the other hand, the court strongly believes that detention should not be used merely as a means to facilitate investigation. The legal criteria for detention are residence instability, risk of evidence destruction, or flight, and the seriousness of the crime itself is not grounds for detention.

However, there is a point of contention regarding Head Cha's case due to his status as a current agency head.

Attorney A, a former chief prosecutor, commented, "Besides Head Cha, several Immigration Headquarters staff are likely involved. If Head Cha continues to serve as head without detention, it raises concerns about whether subordinates can testify properly in court if he is later prosecuted. If key testimonies cannot be maintained in court, that itself can be considered a risk of evidence destruction."

Meanwhile, the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office recently reportedly gave sufficient advance notice to summon Lee Seong-yoon, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.

Before the case was transferred to HOCI, Chief Prosecutor Lee had refused three summons and advocated for the case's transfer to HOCI.

The prosecution noted that although Chief Prosecutor Lee's refusal to respond to three summonses would typically warrant a request for an arrest warrant to enforce summons, they transferred the case to HOCI due to concerns over the legality of forced investigations prior to transfer.

However, with the case re-transferred back to the prosecution, Chief Prosecutor Lee no longer has grounds to refuse summons, and if he continues to do so, the investigation team may initiate forced investigation measures.

Earlier, HOCI Chief Kim Jin-wook requested that after completing the investigation, the case be sent back to HOCI for prosecution decisions, stating that HOCI would determine whether to prosecute upon re-transfer to Suwon District Prosecutors' Office.

However, the prosecution's stance is that while the HOCI Act provides for case transfer and re-transfer, it does not allow splitting a single case into 'investigation' and 'prosecution' phases, reserving prosecution authority while transferring only investigation authority.

Therefore, with the case currently re-transferred by HOCI, it is highly likely that the prosecution will complete the investigation of Chief Prosecutor Lee and Prosecutor Lee and make prosecution decisions.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office recently detected evidence that Prosecutor Lee personally met with Yoon Jung-chun, who provided sexual favors to former Deputy Minister Kim, and handed over a "Yoon Jung-chun Interview Report" to a JTBC reporter. This led to the transfer of cases involving public officials' secret leaks and other high-ranking official crimes under the HOCI Act to HOCI.

The fact that Prosecutor Lee, formerly of the Past Affairs Investigation Division, personally took action to shape negative public opinion against former Deputy Minister Kim is related to the "illegal travel ban" case under investigation by the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, drawing attention to whether Chief Prosecutor Kim will choose direct investigation by HOCI or re-transfer to the prosecution.

It has also been revealed that before Chief Prosecutor Kim received and re-transferred the case involving Chief Prosecutor Lee, he privately interviewed Chief Prosecutor Lee without creating interrogation records or interview reports. If HOCI directly involves itself in this investigation, it could face controversy over political neutrality.

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