Prosecutor's Office Adds Yoon Seok-yeol in 'Judge Surveillance Document' Allegation... "Direct Investigation Deemed Necessary" (Comprehensive)

On the afternoon of the 5th, the People Power Party held a party convention at the Baekbeom Kim Koo Memorial Hall in Hyochang-dong, Seoul, and officially selected former Prime Minister Yoon Seok-yeol as the presidential candidate. Candidate Yoon is holding a press conference after the event. Photo by the National Assembly Press Photographers Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Agency (HCIA) expanded its investigation front against Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, on the 8th by registering him as a suspect in connection with the alleged 'judge surveillance documents.'

Earlier, the Citizens' Action for Judicial Justice (CAJJ) had filed a complaint with the HCIA in June, accusing former Prosecutor General Yoon and others of illegally creating the 'judge surveillance documents' and obstructing related investigations.

The fact that Yoon was registered as a suspect was revealed when CAJJ disclosed the notification letter they received from the HCIA on the same day. The case was assigned to Investigation Division 2. It is known that Deputy Director Yeowoon-guk of the HCIA is the lead prosecutor.

An HCIA official stated, "Considering that former Prosecutor General Yoon was participating in the People Power Party's presidential primary at the time of the case registration, we notified the complainant of the registration only after the primary ended on the 5th to avoid influencing the primary process."

CAJJ filed complaints against six current and former prosecution officials, including former Prosecutor General Yoon, Cho Nam-gwan, Director of the Judicial Research and Training Institute (former Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office), Cho Sang-chul, former Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, Han Dong-hoon, former Head of the Anti-Corruption and Serious Crime Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, and Sung Sang-wook, former Officer in charge of Investigation Information 2 at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, on charges of abuse of authority and dereliction of duty. Among the six accused, only former Prosecutor General Yoon was registered as a suspect by the HCIA.

The 'surveillance documents' allegation involves the Investigation Information Policy Office of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office having created and distributed a nine-page document last February containing information on 37 judges handling cases, including their high schools and universities, major rulings, and public reputation.

Yoon was suspected of illegal surveillance in connection with this and, after disciplinary procedures by Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae, was suspended for two months in December last year for reasons including 'obstruction of investigation and inspection of the Channel A case.'

The 'judge surveillance' allegation was also recognized as having substance in the first trial at the court.

The 12th Administrative Division of the Seoul Administrative Court (Presiding Judge Jung Yong-seok) ruled on the 14th of last month that Yoon's lawsuit seeking cancellation of the two-month suspension disciplinary action filed against the Minister of Justice was dismissed.

The court pointed out at the time, "The plaintiff (Yoon) was informed after the completion of the document analyzing the court but did not delete or modify the illegally collected personal information and instead instructed that the document be delivered to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Anti-Corruption Division and Public Investigation Division."

An HCIA official explained, "After analyzing and reviewing the ruling of the Seoul Administrative Court's first trial, we judged that direct investigation was necessary and decided to register the case."

With this, the number of cases in which Yoon is registered with the HCIA has increased to four. Besides this case, he is also under investigation by the HCIA for allegations including 'Optimus Fund fraud and inadequate investigation' and 'obstruction of investigation into former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook's perjury coaching.'

The 'complaint instigation' allegation, accusing Yoon of instructing the opposition party to file complaints against ruling party figures during his tenure as Prosecutor General, is also targeting him. In relation to this allegation, the HCIA controversially collected the official mobile phones of spokespersons who worked with Yoon during his tenure from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Inspection Department. The Inspection Department took these phones on a voluntary submission basis for forensic analysis, and recently the HCIA seized these phones and the forensic data through a search and seizure. The legal community has criticized this as 'outsourced inspection.'

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