Prosecutors' Office, No Indictment for Yoon Seok-yeol and Cho Nam-gwan in 'Han Myeong-sook Perjury Coaching Obstruction' Investigation

Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate (left), and Cho Nam-gwan, head of the Legal Research and Training Institute. / Photo by Yoon Dong-ju and Kang Jin-hyung.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Agency (HCIA) on the 9th decided not to prosecute Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, and Cho Nam-gwan, head of the Judicial Research and Training Institute, who were accused by a civic group of obstructing the investigation into the alleged 'coaching of false testimony' by witnesses in the trial of former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook. This decision was made 250 days after the investigation began on June 4 last year.

On this day, the HCIA announced that regarding the case of alleged obstruction of investigation into the 'coaching of false testimony' of former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook, Yoon and Cho, who were reported by a civic group on charges including abuse of authority, were cleared of charges due to insufficient evidence.

Additionally, the HCIA stated, "In January, pursuant to Article 19, Paragraph 2 of the HCIA Act, Director Kim Jin-wook, while concurrently serving as the head of the prosecution department, assigned Deputy Director Kim Seong-moon of Investigation Division 2 to handle the prosecution duties for this case instead of Chief Investigator Choi Seok-gyu of Investigation Division 3, who had been leading the investigation. Through this procedure, a final conclusion on the disposition was recently reached."

According to the HCIA, Yoon is accused of abusing the authority of the Prosecutor General by instructing on May 29, 2020, that the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Human Rights Supervisor conduct a fact-finding investigation related to a complaint by Han Dong-su, head of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Inspection Department, who claimed that the political funds violation case against former Prime Minister Han was fabricated, thereby obstructing Han's exercise of inspection rights.

Furthermore, Yoon and Cho are accused of obstructing the exercise of investigation and inspection rights of former Supreme Prosecutors' Office Inspection Policy Research Officer Lim Eun-jeong, who was in charge of the fact-finding investigation into the complaint of coaching false testimony by witnesses in former Prime Minister Han's trial. When Lim submitted approval to recognize witnesses A and B, who testified in Han's trial, for the crime of coaching false testimony, Yoon and Cho rejected it and designated the head of Inspection Division 3 as the lead prosecutor, abusing their authority. They are also accused of neglecting their duties by allowing the statute of limitations on the coaching false testimony charges against A and B to expire.

Regarding the charge that Yoon abused his authority to obstruct Han Dong-su's exercise of rights, the HCIA judged it difficult to acknowledge the charge considering that ▲the documents submitted by the complainant did not specifically indicate illegal acts by the investigation team ▲the Minister of Justice instructed the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to receive progress reports from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Human Rights Supervisor after direct investigation of key witnesses by the Inspection Department ▲the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office investigated multiple related persons in a short period and transferred records to the head of Inspection Division 3 through the Human Rights Department ▲it is within the Prosecutor General's authority to designate the department responsible when complaints involve both the Inspection Department and the Human Rights Department.

Regarding the charges that Yoon and Cho obstructed Lim's exercise of rights and neglected their duties, the HCIA concluded no charges after considering that ▲the head of Inspection Division 3 was the chief officer and the research officers of Inspection Division 3 were responsible prosecutors performing their duties when Lim joined as a team member and worked together ▲according to the regulations on the organization of the Prosecutor's Office, investigations into misconduct by prosecutors of high rank or above are under the jurisdiction of the head of Inspection Division 3 ▲meetings of deputy directors and prosecutors' research officers at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, and meetings of the Minister of Justice with deputy directors and high prosecutors nationwide concluded that the coaching false testimony charges against A and B were difficult to recognize.

The case of alleged coaching of false testimony by witnesses in former Prime Minister Han's trial involves claims that in 2011, the prosecution investigation team induced false testimony from inmates who appeared as witnesses, stating that former Prime Minister Han received money. Although a re-investigation was conducted following related disclosures in April 2020, a final decision of non-prosecution was made for the inmates after an expanded meeting of deputy directors and high prosecutors in March last year.

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