Prosecutor General Yoon's Spokesman's Phone Passed from Supreme Prosecutors' Office to Public Corruption Investigation Office... Legal Circles Call It "Subcontracted Inspection"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] It has been reported that the Public Prosecutor's Office for High-ranking Officials' Crimes (PCHOC) seized a public mobile phone recently submitted voluntarily by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Inspection Department, which was used by the spokesperson of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office when Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, served as Prosecutor General, after conducting forensic analysis, sparking controversy.

Following the Inspection Department, the public mobile phone was handed over to the PCHOC, and in the legal community, there are criticisms suggesting that this series of processes amounted to the PCHOC conducting 'subcontracted inspection' or 'on-demand inspection.'

According to the legal community on the 7th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Inspection Department seized the spokesperson's public mobile phone on the 29th of last month without a warrant, in the form of voluntary submission, and on the 5th, the PCHOC secured inspection materials related to the allegation of solicitation of complaints through a search and seizure of the Inspection Department.

Regarding this, the legal community criticizes that the PCHOC used a de facto loophole to avoid the complicated procedure of obtaining a warrant for mobile phone seizure. It is said that since it was judged difficult to obtain an individual warrant for the spokesperson's phone, the Inspection Department first took the phone, and then the PCHOC circumvented the process by taking the forensic data prepared by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office under the pretext of securing inspection materials.

This mobile phone was used by the current Supreme Prosecutors' Office spokesperson Seo In-seon and former spokespersons Lee Chang-soo and Kwon Soon-jung. Seo used this phone until September and then purchased a new device, keeping the old one in an inactive state.

The PCHOC appears to have particularly targeted former spokesperson Kwon. The PCHOC registered Kwon Soon-jung, head of the Western Branch of Busan District Prosecutors' Office, who served as the Supreme Prosecutors' Office spokesperson in April last year when the complaint solicitation allegations occurred, for investigation on the 14th of last month. Kwon was appointed as the first spokesperson under Yoon's administration when Yoon took office as Prosecutor General in July 2019 and served as his spokesperson for about a year. The PCHOC likely attempted to trace traces of Kwon's external communications on this public phone to verify whether there was organized involvement of prosecution officials in the complaint solicitation allegations.

As the controversy grew, the PCHOC emphasized the legality of securing the materials, stating, "We requested and obtained a warrant for all inspection materials from a specific point in time onward, and only received them from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Inspection Department in accordance with the warrant." The Inspection Department also stated, "The phone was reset during the spokesperson change, so no information could be restored from the forensic analysis."

The Inspection Department's forensic analysis was conducted without the presence of the former and current spokespersons who used the phone, raising concerns that under the pretext of inspection, there was an inappropriate attempt to examine the media's reporting activities, which frequently used the public phone for calls.

A PCHOC official said, "We neither know nor need to know the internal situation of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office," and denied reports suggesting prior consultation with the Inspection Department, calling them baseless speculation.

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