Ministry of Justice Suspends Disciplinary Review of Lee Seong-yoon... Lee Absent (Comprehensive)

The Ministry of Justice held a disciplinary committee for prosecutors at 4 p.m. on the 3rd and decided to suspend the disciplinary review of Lee Seong-yoon, a research fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute, who is currently on trial for allegedly covering up the investigation into the 'illegal travel ban on former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui.'

Lee Seong-yoon, Research Fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute [Image source=Yonhap News]

The disciplinary committee is reported to have made this decision considering that Lee is currently undergoing an appellate trial on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights.

The disciplinary review of Lee began in June last year following a disciplinary request from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. The grounds for discipline were that, while serving as head of the Anti-Corruption and Strong Crime Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in June 2019, he pressured the Anyang branch of the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office to halt the investigation into the illegal travel ban case involving former Deputy Minister Kim. Lee was acquitted of the same charges in the first trial in February. The second trial is currently underway due to the prosecution's appeal.

Lee opposed the disciplinary review as unfair and expressed his intention not to attend the disciplinary committee. On his social media account, he stated, "It is standard practice to suspend disciplinary action until the final court verdict is reached when a prosecutor is indicted," and questioned, "Is such arbitrary and selective application truly in line with the spirit of the Constitution? What kind of discipline is this when an acquittal has been handed down?"

He also mentioned that the Supreme Prosecutors' Office concluded last month that there was no misconduct by Son Jun-sung, head of the Litigation Department at the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, who is involved in the 'accusation inducement' allegations. "In my 30 years as a prosecutor, I have never encountered a case where an investigation was closed due to no charges before the first trial, which is still ongoing," he said. In response, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office explained that Son's case was concluded before the expiration of the three-year disciplinary statute of limitations to decide whether to file disciplinary charges.

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