Seongyun Lee Requests Convening of Expert Investigation Advisory Group and Investigation Deliberation Committee... Will Prosecution Timing Be Delayed?

Seong-yoon Lee, Chief Prosecutor of Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] On the 22nd, Lee Seong-yoon, the Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, who is under investigation for allegedly exerting external pressure on the Anyang Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office to halt the investigation into the 2019 'Kim Hak-ui illegal departure ban' case, requested the convening of a Special Investigation Advisory Panel at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and applied for the convening of a Prosecutorial Investigation Deliberation Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Investigation Deliberation Committee) at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office.

With the appointment of the successor to former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol imminent, attention is focused on how the actions of Chief Prosecutor Lee, one of the leading candidates, will affect the recommendation for the Prosecutor General candidate.

In particular, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, headed by Chief Prosecutor Lee, did not follow the recommendations of the Investigation Deliberation Committee, which issued opinions to 'halt the investigation' and 'non-prosecution' in cases involving Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Chief Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon last year. Instead, they prosecuted Vice Chairman Lee and have continued the investigation into Chief Prosecutor Han, citing mobile phone forensics as a pretext. Given that the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office investigation team is reportedly set to decide on prosecution, there are criticisms that Lee's attempt to submit his own case to the Investigation Deliberation Committee is intended to delay the timing of prosecution.

Regarding the Special Investigation Advisory Panel, former Prosecutor General Yoon decided to convene it last year in relation to the 'Channel A coercion attempt' case, but then Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae halted the deliberation process through investigative directives.

On the afternoon of the same day, Lee's lawyer stated in a press release, "Chief Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon requested the convening of the 'Special Investigation Advisory Panel' at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office on the 22nd and simultaneously applied for the convening of the 'Investigation Deliberation Committee' at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office."

The lawyer added, "Through statements submitted to the prosecution and investigations conducted by the prosecution, Chief Prosecutor Lee has repeatedly stated that regarding the 'allegations related to the travel ban on former Vice Minister Kim Hak-ui,' he only gave just and reasonable instructions to the Anyang Branch under the direction of the Prosecutor General and did not exert any improper external pressure."

He continued, "However, recently, some media outlets have repeatedly reported the possibility of prosecution against Chief Prosecutor Lee, and even detailed investigative content alleging that Lee exerted external pressure by calling a specific executive at the Anyang Branch."

The lawyer said, "Although the source of such reports is unknown, the content includes information that only investigative officials would know, raising suspicions that these reports may reflect the perspective of the investigation team. There are concerns that a hasty conclusion of prosecution may have been reached due to a biased viewpoint."

He added, "Furthermore, some media reports claim that multiple prosecutors, including officials from the Ministry of Justice's Prosecutorial Bureau, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Anti-Corruption and Serious Crime Division, and the leadership of the Anyang Branch, were involved in obstructing the investigation through external pressure. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an in-depth and balanced investigation of the related parties to thoroughly clarify whether external pressure existed and, if so, who was responsible. However, there are concerns that the investigation team is targeting only Chief Prosecutor Lee."

Finally, the lawyer explained the reason for the application, saying, "If the doubts held by the defense within a reasonable scope are not resolved under these circumstances, serious problems regarding the fairness and objectivity of the investigation will arise. To resolve these issues, the Special Investigation Advisory Panel and the Investigation Deliberation Committee were applied for." He expressed confidence that "through the perspectives of legal experts and the general public, it will be clearly established that neither Chief Prosecutor Lee nor the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Anti-Corruption and Serious Crime Division exerted external pressure on the Anyang Branch."

The Special Investigation Advisory Panel is an advisory body convened by the Prosecutor General to deliberate on whether to initiate prosecution in important matters, composed of current prosecutors, university professors, and other legal experts.

The Investigation Deliberation Committee, established at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, is a body where experts from various sectors of society appointed as members deliberate on cases that raise public suspicion or attract social attention, including ▲whether to continue the investigation ▲whether to prosecute or not prosecute ▲whether to request or re-request an arrest warrant ▲and the appropriateness and legality of investigations in prosecuted or non-prosecuted cases.

If a suspect or defense counsel applies for the convening of the Investigation Deliberation Committee at the prosecutorial citizen committee of the jurisdictional prosecutor's office where the investigation is underway, the prosecutorial citizen committee forms a sub-deliberation committee of 15 prosecutorial citizen members. Based on written opinions submitted by the chief prosecutor in charge of the case and the suspect or other related parties, the sub-deliberation committee deliberates on whether to refer the case to the Investigation Deliberation Committee.

The sub-deliberation committee's deliberation is conducted privately, and if a majority of the attending members vote in favor of referring the case to the Investigation Deliberation Committee, a request for convening the committee is sent to the Prosecutor General.

Chief Prosecutor Lee is accused of exerting external pressure to halt the investigation by the Anyang Branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, which was investigating allegations of illegal departure bans on former Vice Minister Kim Hak-ui, while serving as head of the Anti-Corruption and Serious Crime Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in June 2019, including the indictment without detention of Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won.

The Kim Hak-ui investigation team at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office (led by Lee Jeong-seop, Head of the Criminal Division 3), which is investigating this case, reportedly conveyed to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office last month their opinion to prosecute Chief Prosecutor Lee without detention.

After ignoring four summons from the prosecution, Chief Prosecutor Lee contacted the investigation team expressing his willingness to voluntarily appear following reports of the prosecution plan against him, and on the 17th, he appeared at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office and was questioned for about nine hours as a suspect.

Meanwhile, Park Jun-young (46, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 35), a lawyer who directly participated as a civilian investigator in the 8th team of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Past Affairs Investigation Group that investigated the Kim Hak-ui case from 2018 to 2019, recently provided materials to Hankook Ilbo and SBS, including the 'Final Report on the Kim Hak-ui Case' by the investigation group, the 'Interview Reports of Yoon Jung-chun and Park Kwan-chun,' and chat contents from the investigation team's KakaoTalk group chat.

According to these materials disclosed through media reports, it was confirmed that the investigation group deviated from its original purpose of 'fact-finding on raised allegations' and focused its activities on finding charges against former Vice Minister Kim, for which the statute of limitations remained, to request an investigation. It was also revealed that they attempted to create negative public opinion through the public summons of former Vice Minister Kim. Additionally, KakaoTalk chat contents showed that Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won, who applied for the emergency travel ban on former Vice Minister Kim using a forged official document with a fake case number, acted with awareness that this could become problematic later.

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