Prosecutor Lee Gyuwon and Director Cha Gyugeun face trial this week over 'Kim Hak-ui illegal departure' charges... Court to rule on transfer dispute

Conflict over 'Referral' between the Corruption Investigation Office and Prosecutors... Court's Interpretation of Referral Provisions in the Corruption Investigation Office Act Draws Attention

Chae Gyu-geun, Director of the Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters at the Ministry of Justice.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The trial for Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won and Director Cha Gyu-geun of the Ministry of Justice’s Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters, who were indicted for illegal travel ban related to former Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui, is set to begin this week.

Attention is focused on whether the trial will reveal the clear substance of the case, as judicial action against Lee Kwang-cheol, the Blue House Civil Affairs Secretary involved in the illegal travel ban of former Vice Minister Kim, and Lee Sung-yoon, the Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, who is accused of exerting external pressure on the 2019 prosecution investigation of Prosecutor Lee and others, is imminent.

Meanwhile, as the High-ranking Officials’ Crime Investigation Office (HICO) and the prosecution are clashing over the scope of case transfer, interest is growing in how the court will interpret this case.

According to the court on the 2nd, the Seoul Central District Court Criminal Division 27 (Presiding Judge Kim Seon-il) will hold the first pretrial conference for Prosecutor Lee and Director Cha at 2 p.m. on the 7th.

The pretrial conference is a session to confirm the defendant’s position on the prosecution’s charges and discuss future evidence plans, and the defendant is not obligated to appear in court.

Earlier, the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Prosecutor Lee and Director Cha without detention on charges including abuse of authority, obstruction of rights, falsification of official documents, and use of forged official documents on the 1st.

At the time of the incident in March 2019, Prosecutor Lee, who was dispatched to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Past Affairs Investigation Team, is accused of requesting an emergency travel ban at Incheon Airport Immigration Office by citing a case number for which former Vice Minister Kim had already been cleared years earlier, and obtaining retroactive approval.

According to a whistleblower report, the emergency travel ban request submitted by Prosecutor Lee at the time included the case number (Central District Prosecutors’ Office 2013 Criminal Case No. 65889) of a sexual assault case for which former Vice Minister Kim was already cleared by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in 2013. Later, the emergency travel ban approval request submitted to the Ministry of Justice listed an investigation number ‘Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office 2019 Internal Investigation No. 1’ instead of the previously cited case number.

The case number for which the suspect was already cleared cannot be used for emergency travel ban requests, and the 2019 Internal Investigation No. 1 case at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office was only assigned a case number on May 30 of the same year, two months later, for a completely different case, making it a clear fake case number.

Director Cha is accused of receiving reports 177 times from the Ministry of Justice’s Immigration Inspection Department officials from the morning of March 19 to the afternoon of March 22, 2019, containing personal information inquiries including former Vice Minister Kim’s name, date of birth, and immigration restriction information.

He is also accused of approving the travel ban request on the morning of the 23rd, a day after Prosecutor Lee illegally imposed the emergency travel ban on former Vice Minister Kim, despite being aware of the circumstances.

Earlier, HICO stated that when it re-transferred Prosecutor Lee’s case to the prosecution, it made a ‘prosecution authority reserved transfer’ request, asking for the case to be sent back to HICO after the investigation was completed. However, the prosecution rejected this, calling it a ‘bizarre and unheard-of logic,’ and directly indicted Prosecutor Lee.

The prosecution’s position is that the subject of transfer is the case itself, and under the interpretation of the HICO Act, once the case is transferred to HICO and then re-transferred back to the prosecution, HICO can no longer be involved in the case.

Therefore, whether the court will accept Prosecutor Lee’s claim that the prosecution’s indictment is problematic, or proceed with the trial on the premise that the prosecution’s indictment is lawful, could set an important precedent for resolving the ongoing conflict between HICO and the prosecution over case transfers.

Prosecutor Lee and Chief Prosecutor Lee Sung-yoon have argued that their cases should continue to be investigated by HICO even after being re-transferred to the prosecution. Prosecutor Lee’s side filed a constitutional complaint with the Constitutional Court on the 19th of last month, claiming that the prosecution’s indictment ignoring HICO’s re-transfer request violated basic rights.

Chief Prosecutor Lee, who had repeatedly ignored summons from the prosecution, only responded to the summons after the prosecution’s indictment plan was reported in the media, and subsequently requested the convening of the Prosecution Investigation Deliberation Committee and the Expert Investigation Advisory Group. The investigation deliberation committee for Chief Prosecutor Lee will be held at 2 p.m. on the 10th at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

Meanwhile, Park Jun-young, a lawyer who directly participated as a civilian investigator in the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Truth Investigation Team 8, which investigated the former Vice Minister Kim Hak-ui case in 2018-2019, recently disclosed through the media the 1,249-page ‘Final Report on the Former Vice Minister Kim Hak-ui Case’ and the ‘Interview Reports on Yoon Joong-cheon and Park Kwan-cheon’ prepared by the Truth Investigation Team. He pointed out problems in the investigation and conclusion process of the Truth Investigation Team and issues in the prosecution’s Past Affairs Committee’s recommendation for re-investigation of former Vice Minister Kim, calling for public discussion.

In particular, through KakaoTalk conversations exchanged among the investigation team members and disclosed materials, it was revealed that conflicts such as financial debt issues between construction businessman Yoon Joong-cheon and his mistress Sa-ui triggered the release of the problematic video during the investigation of former Vice Minister Kim’s sexual bribery allegations. It was also revealed that the sexual bribery victims were not identified, making it difficult to prosecute former Vice Minister Kim for sexual bribery. However, it is inferred that the Past Affairs Committee and the investigation team, conscious of the then-president’s remarks and negative public opinion about former Vice Minister Kim, focused solely on recommending re-investigation by finding other charges against him without disclosing these circumstances, which is expected to cause a stir.

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