Disciplinary Request for Jeong Jin-ung Regarding Exonerated Official Misconduct in Police Brutality Case

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office has filed disciplinary charges against Jeong Jin-ung, a research fellow at the Legal Research and Training Institute, who was acquitted of charges of official assault against Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon.

Jeong Jin-woong, a research fellow at the Judicial Research and Training Institute (then head of the Criminal Division 1 at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office), who was indicted on charges of assaulting Prosecutor General Han Dong-hoon during a search and seizure operation, is attending the continued second trial held on the 29th at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

According to the legal community on the 25th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office recently filed disciplinary charges related to Jeong's official assault case and reportedly notified Jeong of this as well. Under the Prosecutors' Disciplinary Act, prosecutors can be disciplined if they violate their official duties or damage the dignity or reputation of prosecutors.

The Ministry of Justice holds an inspection committee meeting at the request of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to gather opinions on the level of discipline, then the disciplinary committee deliberates and decides the final disciplinary level.

The chairperson of the disciplinary committee is the Minister of Justice. The minister also has the authority to appoint or commission committee members. There is a possibility that Jeong may request recusal or that Minister Han may voluntarily recuse himself.

Previously, Jeong was prosecuted on charges of official assault under the Special Act on the Punishment of Officials for Violence on July 29, 2020, when he was the head prosecutor of the Criminal Division 1 at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, for assaulting Minister Han (then a research fellow at the Legal Research and Training Institute) during a search and seizure.

At that time, Jeong was attempting to seize the SIM card of Minister Han's mobile phone, who was under investigation by the prosecution for the so-called 'Channel A case.'

Jeong claimed that he only prevented Minister Han from deleting evidence from the mobile phone.

The first trial recognized that Jeong assaulted Minister Han and sentenced him to four months in prison with a one-year probation and a one-year disqualification.

However, the second trial accepted Jeong's claim that there was no intent to assault and acquitted him, and this was upheld by the Supreme Court in November last year.

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