The Corruption Investigation Office Adds Two More Cases of Yoon Seok-yeol's 'Prosecutor General Abuse of Power'... Further Investigation Seems Difficult

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] It has been confirmed that the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Division newly registered two cases related to allegations against President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol during his tenure as Prosecutor General immediately after the presidential election ended.

According to the legal community and Yonhap News on the 24th, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) decided to register the two cases filed by the Citizens' Action for Judicial Justice (Sasehaeng) against President-elect Yoon on the 14th and assigned them to Investigation Division 1.

One of the two cases involves allegations of "retaliatory investigation." Sasehaeng filed a complaint with the CIO on May 24 last year, accusing President-elect Yoon of leading a "retaliatory investigation" against Lee Seong-yoon, then head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and currently Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, on suspicion of illegal travel ban, charging abuse of authority and neglect of duty.

The CIO registered President-elect Yoon under "2022 Gongje No. 22." Five others, including former Acting Prosecutor General Cho Nam-gwan and Moon Hong-seong, former head of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, who were involved in the investigation at the time, were also registered.

The other case concerns allegations that in February 2020, President-elect Yoon refused a search and seizure order issued by former Minister of Justice Chu Mi-ae related to the spread of COVID-19. Sasehaeng claimed that Yoon refused the search and seizure order based on advice from the shaman "Geonjin Beopsa" and filed a complaint on the 25th of last month, charging abuse of authority and neglect of duty. The CIO registered this case as "2022 Gongje No. 28."

With this, the number of cases registered by the CIO involving President-elect Yoon has increased to six. Prior to the addition of these two cases, there were allegations of a negligent investigation into the Optimus fund fraud, obstruction of investigation into the false testimony coaching case involving former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook, allegations of instigating complaints, and illegal preparation of judge surveillance documents.

The case involving former Prime Minister Han was dismissed without charges on the 9th of last month, while the other three cases have yet to be concluded.

However, the possibility of expanding investigations into the five cases related to President-elect Yoon, including the two newly registered ones, is slim due to Yoon's current status. Article 84 of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea stipulates that the president cannot be criminally prosecuted during their term except in cases of rebellion or treason. Accordingly, prosecution is impossible during the term starting from the inauguration date of May 10.

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