Court Dismisses Warrants for TheTamSa's Kang Jin-gu and Choi Young-min in Han Dong-hoon Residence Intrusion Case

On the afternoon of the 29th, before attending the detention hearing (warrant review) held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-dong, Seoul, The Tam Sa representatives Kang Jin-gu (left) and Choi Young-min are stating their positions.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] The detention warrants requested by the prosecution for Kang Jin-gu and Choi Young-min, representatives of the YouTube media outlet 'Simin Eonron The Tam-sa,' who are accused of unlawfully trespassing on the residence of Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon, were dismissed on the 30th.

The day before, Kim Se-yong, the chief judge in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, who conducted the pre-arrest interrogation of the two suspects, dismissed the detention warrants requested by the prosecution around 12:36 a.m. on charges of joint residential intrusion under the Act on the Punishment of Violent Crimes.

Judge Kim stated that the reason for dismissing the warrants was "insufficient grounds and necessity for detention."

The two individuals, along with staff members of The Tam-sa, visited the front door of Minister Han's residence through the shared entrance of an apartment in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 27th of last month and were subsequently reported by Minister Han.

At that time, Representative Kang and others stated, "We stood here to conduct reporting," and "Although we do not have compulsory investigative authority, we intend to report from the perspective of letting Minister Han empathize with the feelings of journalists who were subjected to a surprise search by police investigators on a Sunday."

Upon appearing at the warrant hearing that day, Representative Kang said, "The prosecution's warrant application did not recognize the act of visiting Minister Han's apartment as journalistic activity at all," and added, "During the police search, the protection of the privacy of high-ranking public officials was emphasized over the freedom of the press's journalistic activities."

The Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency conducted three raids starting from the 7th of this month on The Tam-sa's office located in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, and on the residences of Representative Kang and others. Afterward, on the 26th, they applied for detention warrants for the two individuals, and the prosecution filed the detention warrants with the court on the 27th.

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