Ministry of Justice Launches Joint Inspection... "Will Correct the Practice of Direct Prosecution Investigations" (Update)

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Ministry of Justice announced that it has launched a special inspection, together with the Inspection Department of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, into the overall issues revealed during the handling of complaints related to the 'Former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook case.' In particular, measures will be established to prevent leaks of confidential information following the disclosure of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office chief meeting process to certain media outlets.

On the 22nd, the Ministry of Justice presented a plan for future inspections, separate from Minister Park's statement regarding the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's decision to dismiss the perjury allegations against former Prime Minister Han.

According to the Ministry of Justice's explanation that day, the joint inspection will be conducted with members from the Ministry of Justice's Inspection Office and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Inspection Department. They will review the entire investigation and trial process of the case from 2010 to 2011, as well as all procedures from last year's complaint assignment, investigation, decision-making, up to the final conclusion.

To this end, the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office will hold meetings to closely coordinate the division of roles, progress and handling plans of the inspection, and the establishment of improvement plans. After the inspection concludes, they aim to prepare improvement measures for direct investigations and prosecutorial culture that the majority of the public can agree with, through consultations with the Prosecutor's Office and public hearings involving civilian participation to gather public opinion.

In particular, during the inspection investigation process, strict investigations of related parties will be conducted, and if necessary, in-depth interviews with members of the investigation team at the time will be held to verify facts through various methods. If needed, they also plan to consider forming a task force (TF) with related departments and institutions such as the Prosecutor's Office, the Criminal Policy Research Institute, and academia.

Taking this opportunity, they also disclosed plans to correct the wrongful practices of direct investigations by the prosecution. The Ministry of Justice explained that they intend to prepare fundamental improvement measures reflecting the public's demand for "proper and restrained investigations, responsible investigations, and investigations that are not excessive."

A Ministry of Justice official stated, "We will empirically analyze cases considered successful or failed direct investigations to establish new evaluation criteria that define the concepts of 'successful direct investigations' and 'failed direct investigations.' Additionally, we will prepare measures to prevent leaks of official secrets, such as the disclosure of non-public meeting contents to certain media outlets."

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