Court Rejects Civil Group's Request for Reinvestigation of 'Yoon Seok-yeol and Han Dong-hoon Reported for Inducement to Prosecute' Non-Prosecution

On April 13, when President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol was still in his transition period, he announced the second round of Cabinet member candidates and the appointment of the Presidential Chief of Staff at the briefing room of the Presidential Transition Committee in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. On the right is Han Dong-hoon, appointed as Minister of Justice and Deputy Director of the Judicial Research and Training Institute. Photo by the Transition Committee Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The court dismissed a citizens' group's request for a retrial to investigate President Yoon Seok-yeol and Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon again in connection with the so-called 'gobal saju' (alleged solicitation of accusations). A retrial request is a system that allows the court to review the prosecution's decision not to indict.

According to the court on the 7th, the Criminal Division 30 of the Seoul High Court (Chief Judge Bae Gwang-guk) dismissed the retrial request filed by the Judicial Justice Restoration Action Solidarity (Sasehaeng) on the 4th.

Earlier, Sasehaeng had reported the 'gobal saju' allegations to the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Department (Gongsu-cheo). The 'gobal saju' allegation involves the prosecution allegedly soliciting the opposition party at the time, the United Future Party (the predecessor of the People Power Party), to accuse then ruling party figures such as Representative Choi Kang-wook of the Democratic Party and former Roh Moo-hyun Foundation Chairman Yoo Si-min in April 2020, ahead of the general election.

Son Joon-sung, then the Investigation Information Policy Officer at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and head of the Litigation Department at the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, was indicted in May on charges of delivering images related to the accusation documents against Representative Choi and others via the Telegram messenger to Representative Kim Woong of the People Power Party (then a candidate for the United Future Party). The first trial is currently underway for Son's case involving violations of the Public Official Election Act and official secrets leakage.

However, the Gongsu-cheo dismissed the charges against President Yoon, Minister Han, and three prosecutors who were also booked along with Son due to insufficient evidence. Sasehaeng opposed this and requested the court to conduct the investigation again.

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