Law "Gongsucheo Must Disclose Search Warrants for Lee Seong-yoon Investigation Team"

The former Suwon District Prosecutors' Office investigation team, which was subjected to a forced investigation by the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Agency (Gong-su-cheo) due to the leak of the indictment of former Seoul High Prosecutors' Office Chief Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon, won a partial victory on the 4th in an administrative lawsuit demanding the disclosure of records related to the warrant request.

Lee Seong-yoon, former Seoul High Prosecutors' Office Chief Photo by Yonhap News

On that afternoon, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 14 (Presiding Judge Song Gak-yeop) ruled partially in favor of the plaintiffs in the first trial of the case filed by Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lim Se-jin and Prosecutor Kim Gyeong-mok of the former Suwon District Prosecutors' Office investigation team against the head of Gong-su-cheo, seeking cancellation of the refusal to allow inspection and copying of case records. The court stated that inspection and copying of the search warrant application and some investigation records must be permitted. The court judged that Gong-su-cheo's refusal to allow access to the remaining materials was lawful.

Earlier, in May 2021, the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office investigation team prosecuted former High Prosecutors' Office Chief Prosecutor Lee on charges of exerting undue influence in the investigation of former Vice Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui's illegal travel ban. However, before the indictment was even delivered to the parties involved, it was reported in the media, raising suspicions of an 'illegal leak.' Gong-su-cheo, suspecting the Suwon investigation team’s involvement in the leak, conducted a search and seizure of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Information and Communications Division in November of the same year.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lim and Prosecutor Kim, who had returned to their original prosecutorial offices after their dispatch ended before the indictment of Chief Prosecutor Lee, were included among the search and seizure targets. The investigation team claimed that Gong-su-cheo had written the investigation team’s affiliation differently on the warrant, calling it a 'false warrant,' and applied for inspection and copying of related records. However, Gong-su-cheo refused, citing concerns that 'confidential investigation information might be leaked.'

Meanwhile, the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office investigation team filed a quasi-appeal with the court in January last year, arguing that Gong-su-cheo’s search and seizure was illegal, but the Supreme Court finalized a dismissal decision last month.

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