Police Do Not Prosecute Military Truth Commission Officials Amid Controversy Over 'Cheonanham Incident Reinvestigation'

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] The Military Death Investigation Committee under the President, which had caused controversy by deciding to reinvestigate the Cheonan ship sinking incident and then retracting the decision, has been cleared of charges against its officials.

On the 18th, Seoul Namdaemun Police Station announced that it had closed the investigation and decided not to prosecute Lee In-ram, the then chairman, and seven committee members who were accused of abuse of authority by an organization in 2021.

Shin Sang-chul, a former civilian-military joint investigation committee member who consistently raised the "Cheonan ship grounding theory," filed a petition in September 2020 requesting the cause of death of the Cheonan crew members to be revealed. The committee decided to start an investigation in December of that year.

When this fact was revealed later and the bereaved families of the Cheonan and surviving soldiers protested, the committee dismissed the petition in April of the following year, stating that Mr. Shin did not meet the petitioner requirement of being a "person who witnessed or directly heard about the death incident." The chairman resigned, taking responsibility for the controversy.

In response, the Liberty Korea Patriotic Corps filed a complaint against Lee In-ram, the then chairman who decided on the reinvestigation, and seven committee members for abuse of authority. Namdaemun Police Station received the case from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and continued the investigation until recently.

A police official stated, "We judged that there was no matter that could be legally regarded as abuse of authority, so we decided not to prosecute."

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