Supreme Court, Im Eun-jeong: "Prosecutor's Non-Indictment for 'Yoon Investigation Obstruction' Unjust" Final Rejection of Reconsideration Request

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lim Eun-jeong. / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] The Supreme Court has ruled that the non-prosecution decision made by the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Agency (Gong-su-cheo) regarding allegations that President Yoon Seok-yeol, then Prosecutor General, obstructed the investigation into the ‘former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook’s perjury coaching case’ is justified.

According to the legal community on the 22nd, the Supreme Court’s 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Kim Jae-hyung) on the 19th finally dismissed the rehearing petition filed by Im Eun-jung, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Daegu District Prosecutors’ Office’s Major Economic Crimes Investigation Unit, who had appealed against the Seoul High Court’s dismissal of her request for a reexamination.

A reexamination request is a system where a complainant or accuser who disagrees with the prosecution or Gong-su-cheo’s non-prosecution decision asks the competent high court to decide whether to initiate prosecution. If the court accepts the request, the prosecuting agency must file charges.

This case involves allegations that President Yoon and former Legal Research and Training Institute Director Cho Nam-gwan, who served as Prosecutor General and Deputy Commissioner of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office respectively in May 2020, obstructed the fact-finding investigation and prosecution related to former Prime Minister Han’s perjury coaching suspicions.

Gong-su-cheo launched an investigation in June last year after a complaint from the civic group Judicial Justice Citizens’ Action (Sasehaeng), charging President Yoon and others with abuse of authority and dereliction of duty, and issued a non-prosecution decision in February just before the presidential election. The case separately reported by Deputy Chief Prosecutor Im was also registered as ‘2022 Gongje 23 and 24’ and resulted in a no-charge decision in March.

Sasehaeng and Deputy Chief Prosecutor Im filed reexamination requests against Gong-su-cheo’s decisions, and in April, the Seoul High Court dismissed Sasehaeng’s request, stating that there was insufficient evidence to recognize the non-prosecution decision as unjust.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Im is currently under investigation by Gong-su-cheo for allegedly posting content related to this case on social media, which is suspected of leaking official secrets.

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