Prosecutors Decide Not to Indict Yoon Seok-yeol and Yoon Dae-jin on Charges of 'Obstructing Investigation of Yoon Woo-jin'... Police Forwarded Case with Non-Indictment Opinion After 1 Year and 3 Months

Former Yoon Woo-jin, Yongsan Tax Office Chief, Faces Additional Bribery Charges

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol and Yoon Dae-jin, Director of Planning at the Legal Research and Training Institute.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party, and Yoon Dae-jin, the Planning Director (Chief Prosecutor) of the Judicial Research and Training Institute and younger brother of former Seoul Yongsan Tax Office Chief Yoon Woo-jin (who was indicted and detained), have been cleared of charges related to covering up investigations into Yoon Woo-jin from 2012 to 2013.

This comes 1 year and 3 months after the police forwarded the case to the prosecution last September with a recommendation for non-prosecution.

On the 29th, the Criminal Division 6 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kang Beom-gu) announced that Yoon Seok-yeol and Yoon Dae-jin were not prosecuted in connection with allegations that they attempted to cover up the investigation by introducing a lawyer to former Chief Yoon.

Both were accused of obstructing police investigations (abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights) by rejecting search warrants six times during the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s investigation of former Chief Yoon from July 2012 to August 2013.

Yoon Seok-yeol was also charged with violating the Attorney-at-Law Act by introducing lawyer Lee, a former member of the Central Investigation Department, to former Chief Yoon, who was under investigation for bribery in 2012 when Yoon was the head of the Central Investigation Division 1. Additionally, he faced charges of creating and using false official documents by submitting a false statement denying such facts to the National Assembly ahead of the confirmation hearing for Prosecutor General in July 2019. He was also accused of violating the Act on Testimony and Appraisal in the National Assembly by giving false testimony related to Choi Seo-won’s tablet PC in 2017.

Regarding the charges of creating and using false official documents, the prosecution stated, "Candidates for public office subject to confirmation hearings are not considered public officials under the Criminal Act or other special laws, and the statements submitted to the National Assembly in relation to the confirmation hearing were submitted in the capacity of a candidate for public office, not as official documents related to the duties of the head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, so the charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence."

For the charges of violating the Attorney-at-Law Act and abuse of authority, the prosecution explained that the statute of limitations had already expired at the time of filing the complaint and when the police transferred the case, resulting in a disposition of "no prosecutorial authority."

Regarding the violation of the Act on Testimony and Appraisal in the National Assembly, the prosecution dismissed the charges due to lack of prosecutorial authority because the case was transferred to the prosecution without a complaint from the National Assembly within the 20th National Assembly’s term. Previously, the police had forwarded the case to the prosecution with a dismissal opinion, stating that the overall content of the testimony did not differ from objective facts and there was no clear evidence of a crime.

The investigation, which began in July 2019 following a complaint from a civic group, took 1 year and 2 months for the police to transfer the case to the prosecution with a recommendation for non-prosecution, and another 1 year and 3 months for the prosecution to complete supplementary investigations and issue a non-prosecution decision.

Meanwhile, on the same day, the Criminal Division 13 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lim Dae-hyuk) additionally indicted former Chief Yoon on charges of accepting bribes totaling over 200 million KRW (approximately 160 million KRW and 43 million KRW respectively) from a tax accountant and a meat importer under the pretext of providing convenience in tax affairs (bribery under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes).

The tax accountant and meat importer who offered the bribes were exempted from prosecution as the 7-year statute of limitations had expired.

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