Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Reports to Supreme Prosecutors' Office on Plan to Indict Lee Gwang-cheol, Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs... Allegations of Illegal Detention and Investigation Interference in Kim Hak-ui Case

Kwang-chul Lee, Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs at the Blue House.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] On the 20th, it was reported that the prosecution has decided to indict Lee Kwang-chul, the Blue House Civil Affairs Secretary, who is accused of being involved in the illegal travel ban on former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-eui when he was the senior administrative officer at the Blue House Civil Affairs Office in 2019, and has reported this to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

Lee is accused of leading the entire illegal travel ban process by coordinating between Cha Gyu-geun, head of the Ministry of Justice Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters, and Lee Gyu-won, then a prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office’s Past Affairs Investigation Team, after learning on March 22, 2019, a day before the illegal travel ban was imposed, that former Deputy Minister Kim was attempting to leave the country.

Additionally, in June of the same year, Lee is also accused of participating in obstruction of investigation pressure after hearing from Prosecutor Lee, who was a judicial research institute classmate and colleague at the same law firm, that the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Anyang Branch was investigating him. Lee reportedly told then Blue House Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Cho Kuk, "Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won is scheduled to study abroad soon, but it seems the prosecution dislikes him. Please tell the prosecution to allow Prosecutor Lee to leave the country without being investigated," among other remarks.

Then Senior Secretary Cho passed Lee’s request to Yoon Dae-jin, then Director of the Prosecution Bureau. This request from Cho was subsequently conveyed to Lee Hyun-cheol, then head of the Anyang Branch, through Director Yoon. These details are included in the indictment of Lee Sung-yoon, head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, who was previously indicted on charges of obstruction of investigation (abuse of authority).

Lee Kwang-chul appears multiple times not only in the indictment of Prosecutor Lee Sung-yoon but also in the indictments of Cha Gyu-geun and Prosecutor Lee, who were indicted in April on charges of illegal travel ban.

On the 24th of last month, the prosecution summoned Lee Kwang-chul as a suspect and, based on phone records between him and Cha or Prosecutor Lee before and after the illegal travel ban was imposed, as well as testimonies from related parties, concluded that Lee was in a conspiratorial relationship with Cha and Prosecutor Lee.

With the confirmation hearing for Kim Oh-soo, the nominee for Prosecutor General, scheduled for the 26th, it is widely expected that the indictment of Lee Kwang-chul will soon take place under the acting Prosecutor General Cho Nam-gwan’s administration.

Previously, nominee Kim stated his intention to recuse himself from the conflict of interest case after undergoing a written investigation related to this incident.

Meanwhile, attention is also focused on the investigations into former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk and former Minister of Justice Park Sang-ki, who appear in Prosecutor Lee Sung-yoon’s indictment.

The Suwon District Prosecutors' Office transferred the cases of three individuals?former Ministry of Justice Prosecution Bureau Director Yoon Dae-jin, former Anyang Branch Chief Lee Hyun-cheol, and former Anyang Branch Deputy Chief Prosecutor Bae Yong-won?to the High-ranking Officials’ Crime Investigation Office (Public Officials Corruption Investigation Office, or POGO) on the 13th, the day after indicting Prosecutor Lee Sung-yoon.

If POGO decides to directly investigate these three cases, investigations into former Minister Cho, who allegedly conveyed Lee Kwang-chul’s request to former Director Yoon to halt the investigation of Prosecutor Lee, and former Minister Park, who is suspected of exerting pressure on investigations into immigration office staff, will also proceed.

If POGO re-transfers the cases back to the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, the prosecution will continue investigations into the higher-ups involved in exerting pressure on the Anyang Branch investigation.

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